Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman convicted of drowning her two young sons in a lake in 1994, is approaching a possible release after 30 years in prison, and a former fellow inmate has now spoken publicly about a secret same-sex relationship the pair conducted behind bars. Tracey Thompson, a former bank robber who shared Leath Correctional Institution with Smith between 2011 and 2015, says the two women were a couple for four years, spending their days together in the prison's common areas and yard. The disclosure adds a new dimension to the troubled personal history of one of America's most notorious child killers, whose original crime stemmed from a doomed affair with a man who did not want children.

Thompson, now 60, said she and Smith, now 54, grew close within their first week together and became known throughout the facility as an "inseparable" pair whom other inmates and staff largely left alone. She insisted the bond was not about protection from other prisoners but genuine affection, despite neither woman previously identifying as attracted to other women. Thompson also claimed Smith showed daily remorse and grief for her sons in private, alongside separate, previously reported disciplinary incidents involving relationships with male prison staff and numerous men she corresponded with from outside.