Liza Minnelli just pulled back the curtain on a chapter of her love life no one saw coming — and it involves legendary director Martin Scorsese, a “worst-kept secret” romance, and a spiral she now calls a “self-destructive obsession.”
In her new memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, the Cabaret icon, 79, says she and Scorsese fell into a heated, chaotic affair while making their 1977 musical film New York, New York. The twist? She says they were both married at the time.
Minnelli writes that she was married to her second husband, producer Jack Haley Jr., when the connection with Scorsese turned intense — and fast. According to her, it wasn’t just a flirtation or a short-lived set romance. She describes something messy, emotional, and consuming, saying the relationship had “more layers than a lasagne,” and that they “couldn’t get enough of each other.”
And then there’s the jealousy meltdown she claims happened in Greenwich Village.
Minnelli alleges that Scorsese exploded after accusing her of seeing other men — including ballet superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov. In the memoir, she says Scorsese screamed at her: “How can you do this to me?”
Minnelli doesn’t deny it, either. She writes that she did, in fact, sleep with Baryshnikov — adding another jaw-dropping layer to a story already dripping with Hollywood chaos.
But the most shocking part of Minnelli’s confession is how directly she links their affair to drugs.
She describes the romance as “amour fou,” a French phrase for a love that turns obsessive and destructive — “a powerful hypnotic drug in every way.” And she says that wasn’t just poetic language.
Minnelli claims cocaine use became constant during filming — not “recreational,” but around-the-clock. In her telling, it was everywhere: on set, between takes, and at night when they went out. She says Scorsese insisted it fueled his creativity, and she reflects on how easy it is to believe “one more fabulous lie” when you’re deep in substance use.
The fallout, she suggests, was inevitable.
“We were on a runaway train,” Minnelli writes, adding: “Nothing good could come of it.”
Still, she says the affair didn’t end when filming did — even though the movie became a notorious production headache. Minnelli recounts that New York, New York ran long and went wildly over budget, and that its release didn’t meet expectations. But she claims their relationship kept going afterward, and she even pushed for Scorsese to direct her Broadway project The Act.
That decision, she says, came with instant warning signs. Minnelli writes that Scorsese demanded his own dressing room — and she realized quickly he wasn’t built for the job. Eventually, she says she had to fire him, calling it devastating.
“It damn near killed me and broke my heart,” she writes.
Minnelli doesn’t frame herself as a victim, though. She says she isn’t writing to judge or apologize, because the romance was “deeply compelling at the time.” But she also hints the damage lingered longer than the affair itself.
Her final sting? An awkward moment decades later. Minnelli says she approached Scorsese at the 2014 Oscars to say hello — and claims he turned away from her.
“Very sad,” she writes.
And just like that, Minnelli’s memoir has turned a long-rumored Hollywood whisper into a full-blown, headline-ready confession.
