Miss California Carrie Prejean may have had a much more personal reason for embracing the role as a public spokesperson against same sex marriage. We heard earlier this month that both of Carrie’s parents made “gay allegations” in their divorce, which goes way back to 1988. Now a woman has admitted to having a relationship with Carrie’s mom just “a few weeks” before the Carrioe made that controversial statement against gay marriage during the Miss USA pageant. Did Carrie know that her mom was gay? She did say in another appearance that “My beliefs have nothing to do with my sister or my mom, or whatever.”

That Miss California crown may be still firmly affixed to her head, but controversy won’t stop swirling around Carrie Prejean and her family.

That Miss Cailfornia USA crownmay be firmly affixed to her head, but controversy won’t stop swirling…
Valerie Vetrano, an openly gay sales rep from Corona, Calif., claims she had a lesbian relationship with Prejean’s mom, Francine Coppola.

“I did date her,” she told ABCNews.com Wednesday evening. “I’m not going to deny it, but I’m not going to say anything else.”

Vetrano, whose connection to Coppola was first reported by Star magazine, declined to comment on how long their relationship lasted but confirmed it ended “a couple weeks before Carrie Prejean was in the Miss USA competition.”

According to an unnamed friend quoted by Star, Coppola’s family knew nothing of her affair, although during her 1996 divorce from the beauty queen’s father, Wil Prejean, both parties made gay allegations against the other.

ABCNews.com’s attempts to reach Coppola and Vetrano for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday evening. Prejean declined to comment through her representatives.

Remember what Carrie said in answer to Perez Hilton’s question? She said “In my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.” It then came out that her sister was an advocate for gay rights, although both Carrie and her grandmother denied that the sister was gay.

Then we heard all these mean anti-gay comments from Carrie’s grandmother like “I don’t know why that gay guy Perez was even judging a contest with a bunch of girls… He should be judging a Chippendale’s contest.” Her grandmother also denied that Carrie’s sister was gay, saying “[Carrie’s sister] just has her own mindset. But she’s not gay, we just feel sorry for them.” Do you think the Grandmother knows that her daughter is gay? There are obviously a lot of issues in Carrie’s family, and homosexuality must be a touchy subject considering that her mom has had relationships with women while her grandmother thinks that’s something to be pitied.

Star Magazine has more details about the relationship, including photos of Carrie’s mom out at a gay bar and supposed insider information that Carrie’s mom broke off the relationship because “her loved ones would never accept her if she were gay.” Carrie’s mom also thought her daughter was unaware that she was in a same sex relationship.

I agree with many of you that Carrie absolutely had the right to state her opinion, even though it’s one I don’t share at all. I think she was well spoken in her first follow-up appearance on The Today Show, and if she would have left it at that this controversy would have died down. She then went on to become an advocate for an anti gay rights organization and to make multiple media appearances without contacting pageant organizers at all. Of course Donald Trump allowed her to keep her crown, but she violated her contract on several counts. To me it wasn’t about her opinion in the end, it was about how she kept pushing her agenda and didn’t stay within the boundaries of the Miss California guidelines. Unfortunately by putting herself out there again and again she’s also brought her family under scrutiny.

Photos are from 5/12/09. Credit: WENN.com