Sally Ride’s Secret Love Exposed: Astronaut Gave Partner Permission to Reveal Hidden 27-Year Romance Just 10 Days Before Death—Nation Stunned by Emotional Confession! Space Hero’s Private Life Shakes America as Untold Story of Courage, Love, and Identity Emerges, Redefining Her Legacy and Inspiring Millions Worldwide!

Sally Ride in 1986 (left) and Tam O’Shaughnessy in January 2025.Credit : Bonnie Schiffman/Getty; Arturo Holmes/Getty

NEED TO KNOW

Groundbreaking astronaut Sally Ride and her partner Tam O’Shaughnessy were together for 27 years

Ride died in 2012 of complications from pancreatic cancer at age 61

The new documentary Sally debuts June 16 on Nat Geo and will stream on Disney+ beginning the following day

Sally Ride is remembered for her pioneering journey into space, but a new documentary reveals another dimension of the astronaut’s story.

Ride’s life partner Tam O’Shaughnessy opens up about their 27-year romance in Sally, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in January and will debut on Nat Geo June 16 and stream on Disney+ beginning June 17. The documentary covers Ride’s rise at NASA to become the first American woman in space in 1983 as well as her lesser-told love story, which started in the ‘80s.

Though they kept their relationship hidden from the public for decades, O’Shaughnessy says that changed right before Ride died in 2012 of complications from pancreatic cancer at age 61.

Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the late Sally Ride’s life partner Tam O’Shaughnessy in 2013.Carla Cioffi/NASA via Getty

“Ten days before she died, I asked her how I should be to the public,” O’Shaughnessy tells PEOPLE. “I was holding sort of a public celebration of her life, and then a national tribute at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. And it was like, ‘So who am I?’ ”

“Our friends and family knew, and people guessed. It didn’t feel honest,” she continues. “She told me, you decide what you want to say, how open you want to be about our relationship.”

O’Shaughnessy doesn’t hold back on sharing her and Ride’s intimate moments in the documentary. Since Ride was such a private person and the couple only had a few photos together, Sally director Cristina Costantini says they relied on filming recreations of actors that were “all inspired directly from Tam’s memory.”

O’Shaughnessy, whose childhood friendship with Ride became romantic in 1985, says she hopes the film will help people understand their relationship and ultimately portray an American hero “as who she really was.”

“We had a wonderful relationship from the time we were kids until we became lovers,” O’Shaughnessy says. “I think it’s something to be proud of.”

Sally Ride in 1983.NASA/Interim Archives/Getty

Costantini praises O’Shaughnessy’s vulnerability and humor as a narrator in the film, saying that her participation “changed everything.”

“Sally is so closed off in her communication that Tam was the closest and most intimate voice that we could get to Sally,” the film’s producer, Lauren Cioffi, adds.

O’Shaughnessy says there are a few moments in her Sally interview reel “where I sort of break down.”

“When I was describing my relationship with Sally, and especially when Sally got sick, I got teary-eyed, and it just got me all the way through to my heart and guts,” she says. “And that was a little bit of a surprise.”

Sally premieres on Nat Geo June 16 and will stream on Disney+ beginning June 17.