Dark Secret? Morgan Freeman Had 'Affair' With Slain Grandkid Before Her Murder, Insiders Claim

The brutal slaying of Morgan Freeman's step-granddaughter Sunday was not the only scandal to mar her tragic life. Years before her death, she and Freeman were accused of having an affair!

Six years ago, insiders told RadarOnline.com about an alleged affair between The Shawshank Redemption star and Edena Hines, during a time when the actor was divorcing his wife of 25 years, Myrna. Hines was 45 years younger than him and not a blood relative, sources told RadarOnline.com.

Freeman strongly denied the affair, and his rep maintained that the story was false when approached by RadarOnline.com today.

But sources insisted that the steamy affair destroyed Freeman's marriage as well as his longtime relationship with mistress Mary Joyce Hays. Hines was raised by the couple "since she was a little girl," insiders told RadarOnline.com, and as a teen, began her illicit relationship with the much-older actor.

"Myrna said Edena told her that when she was a teenager, she and Morgan went to dinner at a friend's house one evening," insiders told RadarOnline.com. "Both had been drinking, and when they returned home, Morgan attempted to have sex with her."

Hines and the Driving Miss Daisy star "stopped just short of having intercourse," the source claimed, noting how "Edena explained to Myrna that she stopped Morgan from going any further."

When Myrna took her husband to task for his creepy seduction, he promised to stop, but the secret affair continued for years after, sources claimed. He often took Hines to red carpet premieres, and "nobody thought anything of it, because she would be introduced as his 'granddaughter.'"

After the split, sources claimed to RadarOnline.com that Hines was hoping to get pregnant by the actor, in belief that if would lead to him being faithful to her and marrying her.

"Becoming Mrs. Morgan Freeman has been Edena's goal," a family source told RadarOnline.com.

The affair allegedly continued until Freeman began dating a stunning Los Angeles accountant named Ellie in 2012. It was that year when both Hines and the star publicly denied an affair amid the marriage reports.

Hines said, "These stories about me and my grandfather are not only untrue, they are also hurtful to me and my family."

Freeman said at the time, "The recent reports of any pending marriage or romantic relationship of me to anyone are defamatory fabrications from the tabloid media designed to sell papers. What is even more alarming is that these fabrications are now being picked up by the legitimate press as well."

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Hines' boyfriend Lamar Davenport was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection in the 33-year-old's exorcism-like stabbing in front of her Manhattan apartment building on Sunday.