In March 1983, Lanchester released an autobiography, entitled Elsa Lanchester Herself. In the book she alleges that she and
Charles Laughton never had children because he was homosexual.
Maureen O'Hara, a friend and co-star of Laughton, denied this was the reason for the couple's childlessness. She claimed Laughton had told her that the reason he and his wife never had children was because of a botched abortion Lanchester had early in her career of performing burlesque. She herself admitted in her autobiography that she had had two abortions in her youth but it is unclear if the second left her incapable of becoming pregnant again. According to her biographer,
Charles Higham, the reason she did not have children was that neither she or her husband wanted any.
