8 LGBTQ Couples in Entertainment Tell Their Love Stories

 Posted on August 10, 2024  |  8 minutes  |  1530 words  |  Larita Shotwell

Several months ago, Variety’s editors came up with a plan for this year’s Pride issue: We would tell the stories of couples in the entertainment industry. But as the coronavirus tore through the United States, separating millions of families and friends, the idea of celebrating love took on a greater meaning.

Since April, portrait photographer Joe Pugliese has traveled to eight homes in Los Angeles — visiting each one under social-distancing guidelines — to shoot couples in quarantine. And later, through phone interviews, our subjects told us stories about how romance bloomed pre-quarantine. Influencer Gigi Gorgeous and her wife, activist and model Nats Getty (pictured at right), spoke about the night in 2016 when they first encountered each other in Paris. Actor Kiersey Clemons recalled developing a surprising crush on her stunt double, Ebony De La Haye. And actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and producer Justin Mikita looked back on their wedding, performed by Tony Kushner.

We’ll have first blushes of love and raucous celebrations like that again. But for now, love expresses itself in a different, no less valid way. Perhaps miraculously, not a single one of our couples complained too much about their partner’s cooped-up quirks. We hope that these stories inspire and uplift you as much as they did us, and that they serve as a reminder of better days to come. — Ramin Setoodeh

  • Ilene Chaiken & LouAnne Brickhouse

    In 2007, ”The L Word” creator Ilene Chaiken had broken up with her partner of 20 years, and was looking to date — but realized she didn’t know how.

    Chaiken’s friend Angela Robinson, a writer on “The L Word,” offered to introduce her to LouAnne Brickhouse, a Disney executive. Brickhouse was in a serious relationship, Robinson said, but knew everybody. They met at an “L Word” viewing party in West Hollywood, and Chaiken and Brickhouse hit it off right away. Yes, Brickhouse did set Chaiken up, but none of the dates went anywhere. The two women became better and better friends, and Brickhouse would give Chaiken notes on her writing — but Brickhouse still lived with her girlfriend. Read the full story here. 

  • Brad & George Takei

    As Sulu on “Star Trek,” George Takei could travel at the speed of light. But when it came to traversing by foot, he wasn’t so fast.

    In the 1980s, Takei joined a gay club called the Frontrunners, and he was struck by the fastest athlete in the group, Brad Altman, whom the actor recalls as “dashingly good-looking.” Takei made the first move, and he later asked Altman to train with him for a marathon. Read the full story here. 

  • Melissa Etheridge & Linda Wallem

    Almost 20 years ago, Linda Wallem, the showrunner of “That ’80s Show,” had a big casting idea. She wanted Melissa Etheridge — the rock-star crooner behind such hits as “Come to My Window” — to play a recordstore owner on the 2002 sitcom.

    Etheridge had considered acting, and she came in to talk about the comedic role. “I thought somebody like Melissa would give levity to the part and legitimacy,” Wallem says. “I couldn’t believe she hadn’t been on TV before.” The part didn’t work out, but they became best friends. Read the full story here. 

  • Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Justin Mikita

    Jesse Typer Ferguson met his husband at the gym — Equinox in West Hollywood — during the early days of “Modern Family.” “We were both in the locker room, fully clothed,” Ferguson clarifies.

    “I was leaving.” Justin Mikita, then a law student, had just seen the pilot for the ABC sitcom and stopped to chat with Ferguson about his groundbreaking character Mitch, a gay man in a monogamous relationship on network TV.

    “I was taken by how handsome he was and how sweet,” Ferguson says. “I started asking questions about him, and I think he was sort of thrown off by that and ran away from me.” Read the full story here.

  • Nats Getty & Gigi Gorgeous

    In 2008, before she came out as transgender, Gigi Lazzarato began posting makeup tutorials on YouTube. Five years later, she’d become a social media sensation known as Gigi Gorgeous, who documented her transition to becoming a woman in vlogs such as “My Facial Plastic Surgery Story” and “Boob Job Update.” As Gigi achieved icon status in the transgender community and beyond — she was the subject of a Barbara Kopple directed documentary that premiered at Sundance in 2017 — she also fell madly in love.

    “I didn’t know it was a date, but she did,” says Gigi, who is 28, reflecting on the day she spent with Nats Getty, shopping at Balmain in Paris during Fashion Week. Read the full story here.

  • Jason Bolden & Adair Curtis

    Ten years ago, Jason Bolden — the owner of an interior design shop in Manhattan — was getting a shave when his barber decided to set him up with another client. The eligible bachelor was Adair Curtis, a music industry executive. They meet for a cocktail “under the guise of business,” Curtis recalls.

    The two hit it off. “I knew early on in the relationship where this was going to end,” Bolden says. Read the full story here. 

  • Robbie Rogers & Greg Berlanti

    Greg Berlanti — the prolific TV producer behind such hits as “Riverdale” and “Supergirl” — couldn’t have scripted meeting his husband better if he’d written it himself.

    At a 2013 rooftop Pride party, a friend offered to introduce Berlanti to Robbie Rogers, the professional soccer player who had recently joined the L.A. Galaxy.

    “I’m slightly embarrassed to say this part,” Berlanti recalls. “My friend said to me at the time, ‘I’m going to introduce you to your next boyfriend.’” Read the full story here. 

  • Kiersey Clemons & Ebony De La Haye

    An actor and her stunt double falling in love while working on a movie in Fiji sounds like the premise of an escapist romantic comedy more than real life, but it is, in fact, Kiersey Clemons and Ebony De La Haye’s true origin story.

    The two met on the set of “Sweetheart,” a thriller in which Clemons — whose breakout turn in 2015’s “Dope” led to roles in “Hearts Beat Loud,” “Antebellum” and more — plays a lone survivor fending off a monster on a deserted island. As her stunt double, De La Haye had to perform some tricky underwater work that still makes Clemons shudder to think about. (“That sounds so scary — thank you for doing that for me, babe.”) Read the full story here. 

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