Busy Philipps reveals her daughter Birdie, 12, is gay, prefers they/them pronouns: 'Birdie is gay and out'
Busy Philipps has revealed the sexuality of her eldest child Birdie Leigh, saying that they came out as gay when they was just 10. On the December 21 episode of ‘Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best’ podcast, the 41-year-old said, “For those of you who are my friends listening at home, this is the first you're hearing that Birdie is gay and out. Birdie told us at 10 years old and we immediately... I mean obviously, I knew that Birdie knew."
She also talked about the pronouns Birdie prefers while being referred to. “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, and I said 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 noted: “Bird was like, 'I don’t give a f—. 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.' So I said, ‘OK, I can talk about it on the podcast.' So Birdie, my out kid, prefers they/them," she added. "I f— up sometimes, but I’m trying my best at that, too."
During the podcast, Philipps shared an incident when she found Birdie "lying on the floor in the dark" listening to Harry Styles' ‘Fine Line album’ on loop. "I was like, ‘Are you alright? Do you want to talk about anything?’ And Birdie said, ‘It’s just I feel like I’m alive, but I’m not really living, you know? And I just want the living part to start,' " the ‘Busy Tonight’ star said, adding: “I got really emotional because I said, well, first off, welcome to being my daughter, but I want to say this to you because I wish someone had said this to me: 'This is living, you can’t wait for it to start… You can’t think, if only I can get to X, I can start living.’ I said to [Birdie], 'The other thing I want to tell you that I wish I had known is: You get to build your life however the f— you want to, and it doesn’t have to look like anything you’ve ever seen or anything that’s ever been modeled for you because maybe it doesn’t exist.' "
“'You get to choose what will make you feel fulfilled and happy. It doesn’t have to be any of these constructs that we’ve all been fed our whole lives. This is a different world that you get to f—ing build,” Philipps concluded. The TV host shares Birdie and seven-year-old daughter Cricket Pearl with producer husband Marc Silverstein. Earlier in 2018, during an interview with Parents Magazine, Philipps revealed how her spouse was not initially ready to become a parent. "He was not understanding how to be a dad and, in fact, didn’t try. I was parenting by myself. When I told him I wanted to have a second child, he said, 'Fine, but it’s all on you.' That was so heartbreaking,” she recalled, before saying further: “Marriage is always hard, but especially when you have kids … You’re going to go through periods when you’re not into it, but there always has to be one person willing to fight. I went to Marc several times and said, 'I cannot do this anymore. Something has to change, and it’s you'."
"We’ve had a lot of serious discussions and counseling, and he’s incredibly participatory now in a way I don’t think he could’ve imagined before. We’re a work in progress but trying our best, and that’s the most you can do,” Philipps added at the time.