Busy Philipps, an actress and TV personality known for shows like “Freaks and Geeks,” “Cougar Town,” and “Busy Tonight,” made headlines recently — well, more accurately, her child did.
In the latest episode of her podcast “Busy Philipps is Doing Her Best,” the star opened up about her child Birdie living proudly as a gay person who uses they/them pronouns. According to Philipps, she’s known for about two years, since Birdie was 10 years old.
“For those of you who are my friends listening at home, this is the first you’re hearing that Birdie is gay and out,” began Philipps.
“Birdie told us at 10 years old and … I mean obviously, I knew that Birdie knew,” continued the 41-year-old actress, making it clear that Philipps and husband Marc Silverstein not only support their child, but have been there for them along the way.
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Philipps also spoke about the fact that Birdie Leigh, now 12, recently made the decision to start using they/them pronouns, something the star admitted to being bad at remembering.
“So Birdie, my out kid, prefers they/them,” Philipps said on the podcast. “I f— up sometimes, but I’m trying my best at that, too.”
“I said, ‘You know, Bird, I’ve been doing a bad job with the pronouns,’ because Birdie said that they would like their pronouns to be they/them, and I haven’t been doing it,” Philipps continued. “I said [it] because I have this public persona and I want Birdie to be in control of their own narrative and not have to answer to anybody outside of our friends and family if they don’t want to.”
Philipps didn’t just hop onto her podcast to spread her child’s business everywhere, though. Before recording the episode with fellow co-hosts Shantira Jackson and Caissie St. Onge, who both worked alongside the star as former writers on “Busy Tonight,” Philipps made sure that she could make the information public. She had been avoiding doing so out of respect for Birdie’s privacy but wanted to bring up the topic now to allow them to own their own narrative.
“Bird was like, ‘I don’t give a f–k. You can talk about how I’m gay and out; you can talk about my pronouns. That would be cool with me. That’s great,’” noted Philipps. “So I said, ‘OK, I can talk about it on the podcast.’ ”
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To hear more about Philipps’ family and how she’s working to get better about her child’s identity, check out the latest episode of “Busy Philipps is Doing Her Best” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or SimpleCast.
