Morgan Freeman would like to make something perfectly clear: He does not plan to marry his step-granddaughter. In fact, according to the "Shawshank Redemption" actor, the two of them aren't even dating.
For the past several years, reports in the tabloid press and blogosphere have alleged that Freeman, 74, has been carrying on a romantic relationship with his step-granddaughter E'Dena Hines and was planning to make her his wife. (Freeman and his second wife, Myrna Colley-Lee, divorced in 2010.)
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Most of the blog posts cite the National Enquirer, which in 2009 reported that Freeman and Hines, then 27, had engaged in a decade-long affair and that a trip down the aisle was in the cards.
"Morgan has led [Hines] to believe that he wants to marry her," the Enquirer quoted a "family insider" as saying.
Another "family source" supposedly told the paper, "Becoming Mrs. Morgan Freeman has been E'Dena's goal."
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Despite the fact that a) this was the National Enquirer talking and b) in the ensuing years, a marriage has not materialized, hazy reports have persisted. And now Freeman is trying to put an end to the scuttlebutt.
"The recent reports of any pending marriage or romantic relationship of me to anyone are defamatory fabrications from the tabloid media designed to sell papers," Freeman said in a statement provided to TheWrap. "What is even more alarming is that these fabrications are now being pickup by the legitimate press as well."
"These stories about me and my grandfather are not only untrue, they are also very hurtful to me and my family," Hines added.
Well, that settles that. Hopefully. Besides, if it's bizarre behavior in the show-business community that people are craving, there's plenty of the real stuff to go around.