Podcaster Zack Peter claimed that renowned disability rights advocate Helen Keller had a “FORBIDDEN LOVER” in a viral rant video. Shared on October 20, 2025, to his official X account, Peter, in this video, explained:"Okay, I know I’m down the Helen Keller rabbit hole, but I just found out she had a man, a lover, and they were like Romeo and blind Juliet. Okay, so his name was Peter Fagan… and he was her secretary."Helen Keller, an American author, disability rights advocate, and lecturer, lost her sight and hearing after an illness at just 19 months old. Yet, as Smithsonian Magazine reported in a June 27, 2017, article, her personal life remained overshadowed by ableist myths, one of which falsely claimed she never experienced romance or love. Historical accounts, however, suggested otherwise.According to the Smithsonian article, Keller longed for companionship and romance like anyone else, and in her thirties, she found both. At the time, Keller’s lifelong teacher and companion, Anne Sullivan, had fallen seriously ill and had to take a break from assisting her.During this period, Peter Fagan, a 29-year-old reporter for The Boston Herald, stepped in as Keller’s temporary secretary. Their working relationship soon blossomed into a romantic one.As historian Kim E. Nielsen detailed in Helen Keller: Selected Writings, Keller’s family reacted with hostility to this romance.“Her extended family vigorously squashed the relationship with forced midnight train trips out of town, an angry and gun-waving brother, and drama worthy of a bad novel,” Nielsen wrote, per PBS.Nielsen explained in his work that Keller’s relatives “felt adamantly that marriage and child-bearing were not options for a deaf-blind woman.” Under immense pressure and lacking the support of Anne Sullivan, Keller eventually “acquiesced to this belief.” In the end, Peter Fagan “disappeared” from Helen Keller’s life.What else did Zack Peter say about Helen Keller and Peter Fagan’s relationship?Zack Peter (Image via Getty Images)In his viral rant, Zack Peter referenced the chapter of Helen Keller’s life involving Peter Fagan with a mix of fascination and disbelief. Reflecting on Fagan’s involvement, he remarked on how unusual it was for a man like him to step in as Keller’s assistant. He further added that Fagan apparently taught Keller learned how to communicate with fingers.Peter went on to discuss how the pair communicated through “finger spelling,” admitting his bewilderment at the concept. He openly questioned how Keller, who was both blind and deaf, could comprehend the letters traced into her palm. Though he correctly described finger spelling as a tactile method of communication, he humorously confessed that he “didn’t know how she knew what the words were,” adding that he had always thought Keller primarily learned through Braille.As the video continued, Peter’s tone shifted between curiosity and mock disbelief. At one point, he joked that Fagan’s ability to spell words into Keller’s hand might have led to “giggles in her c**chie.”Zack Peter then explained that Keller’s teacher’s illness had created an opportunity for Fagan to step in as her temporary aide and that the family was unaware a romance had blossomed. "And so this man comes in, and everybody in the family’s like, we didn’t even know she had a man. I was like, 'How do you know she didn’t have a man? She can’t see or hear who’s with her, who’s watching her,'"Zack Peter added.Peter further explained how Helen Keller's family disapproved of her plans to marry Fagan, calling it a “big scandal.” He noted that society at the time frowned upon marriage for women with disabilities. Highlighting Keller’s lifelong fight for equality, Zack Peter said:"She’s out here fighting for all women and all their rights. She’s an activist donating to the ACLU to save people of color… And yet suddenly she wants to get married, be an independent woman of herself, and now we decide we’re drawing the line on women’s rights. Now she doesn’t have the right to get married?"Detailing the fate of Keller’s romance, Zack Peter quipped that Romeo (Fagan) and blind Juliet (Keller) “did not see the distance.” Their families had intervened, and poor Fagan “didn’t get to marry the love of his life.”He concluded by joking that the entire revelation felt like something “out of the Matrix,” as if history had been rewritten overnight. He remarked that he “didn’t learn any of this in school,” noting how people usually only remembered Keller as “the woman who was smart,” not someone who almost got married. "But now she’s flying planes, she wrote 12 books, and she had a husband—or almost husband. She was Romeo and blind Juliet. Somebody’s messing with the Matrix. Tomorrow we’re going to find out she had kids," Zack Peter said.Concluding his rant, Zack Peter said, “You go, girl,” to Keller, before joking that because of the Mandela effect, there would soon be “a new script written into the Matrix,” and within “48 hours,” there would be “some new news”, but this time, it would be “real.”Helen Keller passed away on June 1, 1968, at her home, Arcan Ridge, just weeks before her 88th birthday.