Local News in Brief : Aide Promised to Keep Hudson Secret

Rock Hudson’s secretary did not tell the late actor’s homosexual lover that Hudson had AIDS because of a promise he made to Hudson, a lawyer told a jury in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The Superior Court jury and four alternates must decide if Hudson and his secretary and friend, Mark Miller, conspired to keep Hudson’s illness secret from his lover, Marc Christian, so they could continue having sex.

Christian’s lawyer contends that Miller kept Hudson’s diagnosis secret because, in part, he did not want to risk losing any money he was to get from the estate when Hudson died.

Andrew Banks, Miller’s lawyer, said in his closing argument that Miller had been Hudson’s friend for more than 30 years, his secretary for 13 years, and that Hudson had asked him not to tell Christian he had AIDS after learning in June, 1984, of the diagnosis. Miller did not know the details of Hudson’s will, Banks said.