At this point, Ellen DeGeneres is probably a household name. She's not only a top-tier talk show host on Ellen and a game show host on Game of Games, but she's dabbled in voice acting for Finding Nemo and Finding Dory as the iconic surgeonfish Dory. Due to Ellen's popularity, most people already know her longtime partner, Portia de Rossi. But who is Portia? What does she do while her wife pranks major celebrities and audience members during the day?
Currently, Portia is known as an Australian-American philanthropist and businesswoman, but rose to fame as a model and actress. Some of the charities she supports are Locks of Love and Save the Music Foundation, but most of her support is focused on helping and protecting animals through The Humane Society and The Gentle Barn. As for her acting work, she's starred in everything from Arrested Development to Scandal. The couple currently lives in their gigantic Montecito mansion in California.
American actress Samira Wiley is best known for her starring roles in hit TV shows Orange is the New Black as Poussey Washington and The Handmaid's Tale as Moira that won her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Makes sense that she'd find love with screenwriter Lauren Morelli. Morelli landed her first major writing job in 2013 for Orange is the New Black, and we can only assume that's when the relationship began.
Wiley told BUST Magazine about the moment she realized she was falling for her future wife: “I was really attracted to Lauren’s mind first before I met Lauren the person. “I got her script and I was like: ‘This person’s really talented, I can’t wait to meet this person...' I just remember her coming to set and me being able to watch her be a boss from afar, telling whatever people to go this way, answering this question. Just seeing her literally be the person in charge was really attractive to me.”
Heavily awarded American actress Jodie Foster has won almost everything including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Best known for her roles in Silence of the Lambs and Taxi Driver, you might not know her wife Alexandra Hedison. Hedison is a celebrated artist in her own right as a photographer, director, and actress herself.
While Hedison had a successful career as an actress in the '90s in Prey and The L Word from 2006 to 2009, but she ultimately left Hollywood for a more satisfying career in photography. She told The New York Times, "I was supporting myself, but I was miserable. Actors need to be front and center all the time. That's not me." That's definitely true, as it's rare to see an appearance from her unless Foster has won another award.
We doubt that we really need to explain who Sarah Paulson or Holland Taylor are specifically, but it might be a shock that they've been coupled up since 2014. Sarah Paulson, 46, is an award-winning actress who has stars in various horror and action pieces. Most famously, she's a recurring actress for American Horror Story, and has recently embarked on her own disturbing series Ratched. Holland Taylor, 78, has won her own slew of acting awards and has a long resume of hit roles from over the years.
Paulson told The New York Times about the critics of her relationship: “My choices in romantic partners have not been conventional, and therefore the idea that it's ‘other’ makes it compelling. If my life choices had to be predicated based on what was expected of me from a community on either side, that’s going to make me feel really straitjacketed, and I don’t want to feel that. What I can say absolutely is that I am in love, and that person happens to be Holland Taylor.”
Acting duo Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka have been an item for years, married in 2014, and have two kids together. Harris is best known for his role in the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother as the womanizer Barney, but he has a large range. From the set to the Broadway stage, Harris has enormous talent as a performer. David Burtka similarly stars in Broadway roles and guest-starred in How I Met Your Mother, which actually isn't when their iconic love story began.
Harris clarified that they first met via a mutual friend and happened to keep stumbling into each other until they finally started dating in 2004. He confessed to Out that he "initially fell for David harder than he fell for me. I was in love with him before he was comfortable saying it, and I think that speaks to our past experiences. I remember saying, 'I think I love you,' and he was like, 'That’s really nice,' which is not necessarily what you want to hear. But I appreciated his honesty in not jumping the gun and saying something because he felt obliged to. "
George Takei -- American author, actor, and LGBTQ+ rights activist -- is best known for starring as Hikaru Sulu of the USS Enterprise on the pop culture TV series Star Trek. He works continually in state and local politics for LGBT rights as well as human rights and international relations between Japan and the United States. His partner, Brad Altman, is also an actor as well as a producer, notably working on Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II (2004).
Takei and Altman announced their engagement in 2008 and applied for West Hollywood's first marriage license a month later. The pair married in Los Angeles at the Japanese American National Museum's Democracy Forum later that year on September 14. In 2009, they were the first same-sex couple to appear on GSN's The Newlywed Game, winning the $10,000 grand prize, which they donated to charity.
Everyone knows the legendary English singer/songwriter and musician Elton John, but what about his partner David Furnish? Furnish is a filmmaker born in Canada and a former advertising executive for Ogilvy & Mather. Currently, he works as a contributing editor of Tatler magazine and a columnist for Interview and GQ on top of working with his husband Sir Elton John as co-chief of Rocket Pictures and on the board of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
The pair began dating in 1993 before John proposed in May 2005 and were legally partnered later that year in Windsor, Berkshire. They were one of the first English couples to enter such a union, making sure it was performed the first day that civil partnerships were legal in the country. The couple have two sons, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John and Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, who were both born via surrogacy. In 2014, John and Furnish converted their civil partnership into a marriage once it became legal. Additionally, Queerty named the couple as two of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people."
Raven-Symoné is an actress, singer, and songwriter who is best known for her acting stints in The Cosby Show, Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, and That's So Raven who has won awards ranging from five NAACP Image Awards to three Young Artist Awards. She proposed to her now-wife, social media manager Miranda Maday, during quarantine.
The pair held a low-key ceremony on June 16 in the garden of Grey's Anatomy star Debbie Allen's L.A. home dressed in Gucci sweatsuits, at the request of Raven. Miranda gave Vogue some important insight on their marriage as well as some advice for others: “I think for anyone getting married at any time... remember why you are doing what you are doing, remember why you are choosing to commit, and connect to how strong love and partnership is. Something I realized during this pandemic is that family is so important and sometimes family isn’t the people that gave birth to you, it’s different."
Jesse Tyler Ferguson is an American actor best known for his five-time Emmy-Award nominated role as Mitchell Pritchett on the sitcom Modern Family. Before embodying Mitchell, Ferguson made his acting debut on Broadway in On the Town and was in the original production ofThe 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His husband, Justin Mikita, is a lawyer and a jack-of-all-trades in terms of philanthropies, film projects, charities, and the like.
Ferguson announced his proposal to Justin Mikita in September 2012 after two years of official dating of nearly two years. Nearly a year later, they held a summer ceremony in Manhattan on July 20. They welcomed and introduced their first child, son Beckett Mercer Ferguson-Mikita, on July 7, 2020 on Instagram.
Mississippi native Lance Bass is a singer, actor, dancer, and producer best known for singing bass in the '90s boyband NSYNC. After some attempts in music management and space exploration (you read that correctly), Bass released an autobiography appropriately named Out of Sync in regard to his sexuality. Michael Turchin is a painter and actor who began dating Bass in 2011.
After two years of dating, the pair became engaged and married on December 20, 2014, at the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California. All of Bass' former NSYNC members were in attendance except for headliner Justin Timberlake. They aired their wedding life on E!, making them the first same-sex couple to wed on cable television. They have tried nine times to have their own child via surrogacy, but they have not yet been successful.
American actor and director David Hyde Pierce is famous for his role in the NBC sitcom Frasier as Dr. Niles Crane, leading him to win four Primetime Emmy Awards for his skill. Brian Hargrove also works in the film industry as a television writer and producer, creating the show Titus alongside Christopher Titus and Jack Kenny.
Pierce and Hargrove collaborated on the musical It Shoulda Been You, with Hargrove writing the script and lyrics while Pierce directed. Pierce publicly confirmed his sexuality in 2007 before shortly announcing his partnership with Hargrove. The pair were married on October 24, 2009, just before California banned all same-sex marriages.
Wanda Skyes is an actress, writer, comedian, and activist who has won everything from a Primetime Emmy for her contributions to The Chris Rock Show to winning Entertainment Weekly's prize of 25 Funniest People in America. She met French businesswoman Alex Niedbalski in 2006 on a ferry to New York's Fire Island.
The couple held their wedding ceremony in Las Vegas in 2009, and then became parents in April 2009 when Niedbalski gave birth to a pair of fraternal twins: a daughter named Olivia and a son named Luca. Thanks to their mother, the children are both bilingual, speaking English and French fluently.
Canadian actor and singer Victor Garber stars in everything from television shows to films to theatre productions. While he's seen in many film productions, he keeps relatively quiet about his personal life, except for when he came out as gay in 2012, stating a year later in 2013 to the Los Angeles Times, "I don't really talk about it, but everybody knows."
He's held a decades-long relationship with Canadian model and artist Rainer Andreesen, who's he's dated since the turn of the century. Andreesen has also starred in film productions, including Pretty Boys (2002) and Salvage (2015). The Hollywood couple officially married in Canada on October 10, 2015, when Andreesen announced the union on his Instagram page.
Sam Smith is best known for his jaw-dropping vocals as a high-profile singer/songwriter. The Englishman rose to international fame after the release of his debut album In the Lonely Hour and the landslide success of the single "Stay With Me," leading him to win four Grammy awards. His partner Brandon Flynn is an actor who starred in Netflix's controversial TV series 13 Reasons Why as the troubled teen Justin Foley.
Smith came out as gay in 2014 after winning his Grammy awards, acknowledging during his acceptance speech that the heartbreak was the only reason he had such success. He later revealed in 2017 that he is also genderqueer. In 2017, Smith revealed to Ellen DeGeneres that he was dating Flynn, but they unfortunately split in 2018 after nine months together.
American director, producer, and choreographer Rob Marshall has worldwide fame for his work directing the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Chicago, earning him the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film and nominations for countless others. John DeLuca is an American film producer who works with his partner Marshall on many productions.
The pair met when they were both Off-Broadway performers and have been living with one another since 2007 in New York City. They also own a multi-million dollar summer home located in Sagaponak, New York. Marshall told Out in 2015, "The truth is, we love work, but it’s not our life. Life is life. We realized that, in a relationship, you have to fill up. You can be running on empty, and it’s important to stop work and have an experience together and be living the food and atmosphere and the people somewhere... We learned that when we actually did three projects back-to-back — it was too much. What were we racing for?"
Stand-up comedian, actress, writer, seinger, and producer Lily Tomlin make her mark in the film Nashville back in 1974, but she's now better known for her Netflix role as Frankie Bergstein in the series Grace & Frankie that launched in 2015. Her partner Jane Wagner is similarly involved in the creative industry as a writer, director, and producer who routinely collaborates with Tomlin on projects.
Tomlin and Wagner began their love story decades ago in March 1971, but they kept things on the down low for a while. In regard to their public relationship, Tomlin told Just Out in 2008, "Everybody in the industry was certainly aware of my sexuality and of Jane … in interviews, I always reference Jane and talk about Jane, but they don't always write about it." The pair officially married in Los Angeles after 42 years in December 2013.
Jim Parsons, best known for his role on the CBS sitcomThe Big Bang Theory as the nerdy scientist Sheldon Cooper, has starred in everything from TV series to films and Broadway productions. In fact, his stint with CBS has made him the highest paid television actor in the world. Producer and art director Todd Spiewak sure bagged a good one!
Not to say that money equals happiness, but they seem to be doing just fine. The couple have been married since 2017 after a New York wedding, but their relationship extends a decade before The New York Times revealed Parsons' sexuality in 2012. Parsons described his relationship to E! Online, saying it's made up of "an act of love, coffee in the morning, going to work, washing the clothes, taking the dogs out—a regular life, boring love." Sounds perfect!
Among the LGBTQ+ celebrities we doubt we need to introduce to you, the singer/sonwriter and performer Barry Manilow has dated the Barry Manilow Productions president and CEO of Stiletto Entertainment Garry Kief since 1978. Manilow and Kief kept their relationship a secret for nearly forty years until their secret marriage was revealed by Suzanne Somers.
The couple wed during a private ceremony in Palm Springs estate in April 2014, exchanging wedding bands as a sign of their commitment after California legalized gay marriage in 2014. Manilow was married once before to his high school sweetheart whom he dubbed to US Weekly as"the perfect wife," citing that their split was not due to his sexuality, but rather his commitment to music.
Drag queen, actor, activist, and television personality RuPaul Charles hosts the iconic reality TV competition show RuPaul's Drag Race, which has won eight Primetime Emmy awards. In fact, Time included RuPaul on their list of 2017's 100 most influential people. Not much is known about his husband Georges LeBar, a designer, painter, and rancher in Wyoming, who tends to allow RuPaul to absorb all of the media attention.
The couple met each other in 1994 at the New York City nighclub Limelight. They dated for two decades before officially tying the knot in 2017, thought RuPaul clarified that they do have an open marriage because, according to Pink News, he refuses to "put restraints" on his loved ones -- even his partner.
Cynthia Nixon is an American actress and activist who played the lawyer Miranda Hobbes in the hit TV series Sex and the City, winning a Primetime Emmy award for her performance in 2004. She also acts in films, on Broadway, and has attempted to breach the political sphere on the basis of progressive agendas. Her wife, Christine Marinoni, is similarly motivated as an education activist.
Nixon and Marinoni met in 2004 and married in 2012 after a three-year engagement. Nixon was in a previous relationship with teacher Danny Mozes, with whom she shares two children. Regarding her sexuality, Nixon told The Daily Telegraph in 2007, "I don't really feel I've changed. I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman."
Ricky Martin -- the Puerto Rican singer and performer behind "Livin' La Vida Loca" -- has been crowned both the "King of Latin Pop" and the "Latin Music King." For years he was questioned regarding his sexuality on talk shows and during interviews, but he refused to label himself until officially coming out with a statement on his website in 2010, writing, "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am."
His acceptance of his fluid sexuality led to a relationship with painter Jwan Yosef that began in 2016 and led to a flourishing marriage. The pair were engaged in November 2016 and married about a year later in January 2018 with a three-day event. They welcomed their first child via surrogacy later that year, naming the little girl Lucía Martin-Yosef.
American musician Melissa Etheridge has been an LGBTQ+ activist since January 1993 when she officially came out as lesbian during the Triangle Ball for Bill Clinton's first presidential inauguration. Before dating Linda Wallem, Etheride was involved with filmmaker Julie Cypher and actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, welcoming two children with each partner, but neither relationship stuck.
Etheridge obviously as a taste for creative Hollywood types, so when Actress, writer, and producer Linda Wallem entered the scene, she knew she found a good match. The couple married in Montecito, California, at San Tsidro Ranch on May 31, 2014, shortly after they both turn 53 on the same day. Sharing a birthday automatically secures soulmate status.
Elliot Page, a transgender actor and producer born in Canada, rose to fame as the titular role for the coming-of-age film Juno, receiving apt praise for his work, going on to star in countless other films and even a video game! He first publicly came out as gay in 2014, but recently clarified his identity as transgender in 2020, appearing in Time as the first openly trans man to be featured on the cover.
Page was married to professional dancer Emma Portner for three years until officially divorcing in early 2021, shocking fans who thought their relationship as steady as a rock. Page was also linked to surfer Samantha Thomas for years. They became official in 2015 but appeared to quiety separate in 2017 before Page very publicly flaunted Porner on his Instagram.
Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts began her career as a sports news broadcaster for her local Mississippi TV news and radio stations before transitioning to ESPN reporting and subsequently landing the co-anchor job for ABC's morning program. In 2012, she received both a Peabody Award and a spot in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. So what about this wife of hers?
Roberts reportedly met Amber Laign, a professional massage therapist, in 2005 while on a blind date. It's always amazing to think of how such random encounters turn to love! Their close circle knew that the pair were romantic, but Roberts only made the relationship public in late 2013.
Emmy Award-nominated actress Sara Gilbert is known for her role in the sitcom Roseanne as well as her work as a director, producer, and co-host of daytime talk show The Talk. Gilbert is romantically linked to 4 Non Blondes lead singer and 2015 inductee to the Songwriters Hall of Fame Linda Perry.
After Gilbert separated from Ali Adler, she sparked a relationship Linda Perry, eventually announcing their engagement in April 2013 and subsequent marriage on March 30, 2014. They share a son Rhodes Gilbert Perry, whom Gilbert gave birth to on February 28, 2015. Four years later, Gilbert filed for divorce, ending their love story for now.
Fitness extraordinaire Jillian Michaels made a name for herself as a personal trainer and television personality on the hit reality show The Biggest Loser centered around weight loss. Since leaving the show, she's released books and appeared in other TV shows such as Sweat, INC, The Doctors, and Just Jillian.
Micheals met Heidi Rhoades, a talent manager and yoga instructor, during a time she was looking to adopt a child. The trainer told People, "Our relationship happened to intersect with my desire to be a parent, and Heidi was supportive." They were engaged for a time, but are no amicably split as co-parents to their two children. Michaels has been dating designer Deshanna Marie Minuto since 2018.
New Kids on the Block singer Jonathan Knight was the oldest member of the late '80s and early '90s boyband and the first to make his leave from the group before reuniting with the other members in 2008. Knight was outed as gay by his ex-boyfriend Kyle Wilker in a 2009 publilcation of the National Enquirer. Knight then released a statement on the NKTB blog, saying, "Apparently the prerequisite to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption 'I am gay'. I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected!"
Knight met fitness trainer Harley Rodriguez during a casual night out in Los Angeles with via a mutual friend, which sparked their relationship. They went on to star in a 2015 production of the competition show The Amazing Race, placing 9th overall. Knight proposed to Rodriguez in Amazing Race style in 2015 while they vacationed in Africa.
CBS broadcast journalist Anderson Cooper and nightclub owner Benjamin Maisani started a private dating relationship back in 2008, taking plenty of time to enjoy each other before Cooper decided to release a statement about his sexuality, subsequently outing his relationship: "It's become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something – something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true... The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud."
Three years later in March 2018, it was confirmed that the long-time couple had officially split up, but by April 2020, Cooper announced that his first son Wyatt Morgan was born via surrogacy. Despite their separation, Cooper and Maisani confirmed to the press that they are comfortable with co-parenting him.
Actor and producer Zachary Quinto officially came out as gay to the public in October 2011 after he "realized that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality," as reported by the Huffington Post.
Before dating model and musician Miles McMillan, Quinto was with actor Jonathan Groff from 2010 to 2013. After their split, Quinto moved on to McMillan that summer, moving in together in New York early 2015. Unfortunately, their relationship was put to rest in 2019 despite Vogue's dubbing them "a power couple whose domain extends across the film, fashion, and art scene."
The Twilight Saga actress Kristen Stewart has been linked with multiple partners since her very public cheating scandal against co-star and then-boyfriend Robert Pattinson with director Rupert Sanders. Aside from the controversy, Stewart has received wavering support from her statements about her sexuality, stating in 2017, "You're not confused if you're bisexual. It's not confusing at all. For me, it's quite the opposite."
From 2013 to 2018, Stewart dated both producer Alicia Cargile and model Stella Maxwell, the later of whom she had a very public relationship. However, she has since found love away from her on-again, off-again relationship with Maxwell from the screenwriter Dylan Meyer and have been steadily dating since late 2019.
You may know Matt Bomer from a little show called American Horror Story, but did you know his husband Simon Halls? Simon is more than just the other half of Matt Bomer, he’s also had an amazing career in the entertainment industry. Matt and Simon have been together since 2011, and they have 3 sons together!
Simon got his start in the publicity department at Warner Bros. were he even assisted his future husband, Matt! Now, he is a founder and partner at well-known public relations firm SLATE PR. He’s managed publicity for big stars like Sarah Jessica Parker, Jude Law, and Annette Benning. It’s no doubt that Matt and Simon’s marriage is one to envy.
In October 2019, Niecy Nash announced her divorce from Jay Tucker after eight years of marriage. Much to the surprise of her friends and family, she went public with her union with Jessica Betts. Nash revealed on a new episode of Facebook Watch’s “Red Table Talk” that her children were shocked that their mother was with a woman! However, they quickly came around to the idea because they really liked Jessica Betts.
Before Jessica was Niecy’s lover, she was her friend. In fact, they were friends for four and a half years before their relationship took off! Since the family was already familiar with Jessica, they had no problem embracing the new addition to their family. Niecy said her kids sad this about Jessica: “Oh my God, she’s so cool! They was exchanging numbers…So, they already liker her.”
Kristen Stewart is probably best known for her role as Bella Swan in the Twilight movie franchise. Even more popularly, her relationship with co-star Robert Pattinson after the franchise ended. All that Bella and Edward stuff seems like ancient history now! Kristen announced on the Howard Stern show in early November 2021, that she and her girlfriend are engaged!
The pair have been together since 2019 when Kristen also told Howard on his show that she can’t wait to marry her one day! Kristen and Dylan met on a movie set and apparently, in the words of Kristen “All bets were off!” Dylan Meyer, her fiancé, co-wrote the screenplay of the 2021 film Moxie which starred Amy Poehler.
