Neil Patrick Harris, Mel B, Drew Barrymore, & Other LGBTQ Celebrity Parents We Love

Sophia Bush & Ashlyn Harris

Sophia Bush came out as queer in an April 2024 essay for Glamour, where she revealed that she is dating former American soccer player Ashlyn Harris. She wrote that she is “absolutely in awe of [Ashlyn’s] relentless integrity.”

“The way she prioritizes and centers her kids, not only in her life but in the core of her being, is breathtaking to behold,” Bush continued. “Falling in love with her has sutured some of my own childhood wounds, and made me so much closer to my own mother. Seeing Ashlyn choose to not simply survive, but thrive, for her babies has been the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed a friend do. And now I get to love her. How lucky am I?”

Now, Bush loves Ashlyn’s kids Ocean (born in 2022) and Sloane (born in 2021), who Ashlyn shares with ex Ali Krieger.

Jessie J

Jessie J came out as bisexual in 2011, but a few years after splitting from her girlfriend, she told The Mirror that it was “a phase.” In a 2024 performance, she walked back that statement. “2012, I broke up with my beautiful girlfriend,” J sang, per Out. “With the press in my face, called it a phase, babe I’m sorry.”

Now, she is enjoying motherhood with son Sky (born in 2023), who she shares with boyfriend Chanan Safir Colman. The “Price Tag” singer wrote a sweet note to him in December. “Watching you blossom this year has been the most magical thing to watch. You are hands down the highlight of my year and my life,” she wrote on Instagram. “I haven’t loved anything more than I love you my angel boy.”

Rebel Wilson & Ramona Agruma

Rebel Wilson and wife Ramona Agruma are parents to daughter Royce Lilian, who was born via surrogate in 2022. The beautiful little girls served as a flower girl in her moms’ wedding in Italy, where she looked adorable in a white dress with a pink sash.

“Obviously, I knew I’d love her so much because I wanted her so much to come into my world. But the love when I see her little face and I go, it’s like so much, you want to eat her,” the Pitch Perfect alum told PEOPLE in 2024 about her daughter. “She’s so cute and adorable.”

Halsey

Halsey, who uses she/they pronouns, has been open about her bisexuality through the years. At the GLAAD Media Awards in 2018, where she won the Outstanding Music Artist award, she shared, “I spent the past year and the year before that working really hard to be a better representative of the LGBT community,” per PEOPLE.

“I’m a young, bisexual woman, and I’ve spent a large part of my life trying to validate myself — to my friends, to my family, to myself — trying to prove that who I love and how I feel is not a phase; it’s not part of some confusion that’s going to change or could be manipulated,” the “Bad at Love” singer said in the acceptance video.

Now, they are parents to son Ender Ridley, born in 2021, with ex Alev Aydin.

Pete Buttigieg

The former U.S. secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg and husband Chasten Buttigieg are parents to twins Joseph August “Gus,” and Penelope Rose, whom they adopted in Aug. 2021.

“It’s been wonderful. It’s everything people tell you to expect and more,” Pete shared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe shortly after the twins were born, per PEOPLE. “I think the biggest thing that’s surprised me is just how much joy there is even sometimes in the hard parts.”

He added, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s the most demanding thing I think I’ve ever done, that Chasten and I have ever taken on. It’s just amazing.”

Wanda Sykes & Alex Sykes

Wanda Sykes came out a 2008 equality rally in Las Vegas, after she married wife Alex Sykes. The comedian and actress welcomed twins Olivia Lou and Lucas Claude in 2009, and the thought of having kids made her want to come out.

“I just got married, and then it was the Prop 8 thing in California — and that just made me angry — and then also, we were planning on having a kid…you can’t make the kid feel like there is something wrong or there is shame in it. So definitely, that was a motivator to come out,” she said on Rosie O’Donnell’s The Rosie Show in 2011, per Think Progress.

Rosie O’Donnell

Is a mom of 5: Parker, who she adopted in 1995; Chelsea, who she adopted in 1997 with ex Kelli Carpenter; Blake, who she adopted in 1999 with Carpenter; Vivienne, who she adopted in 2002 with Carpenter; and Clay, who she adopted in 2013 with ex Michelle Rounds, who died by suicide in 2017.

The “And Just Like That…” actress shared in a recent interview with Variety about how she shared her coming out experience with her child Clay, after they came out as nonbinary. O’Donnell’s child asked if she was also nonbinary, and she replied, “I said, ‘Well, you know what, honey, I’m an O.G. lesbian. I’m a girl who knew I was a girl, who liked being a girl, but didn’t feel like a real girl. But I never wanted to be a boy. I never thought about boys. I was only always thinking about girls.’ And then they said, “What did your class say when you told them?”

“Can you imagine? They have no understanding of what it was like when I was 10 in 1972 and nobody mentioned it,” she continued. “The word was not said — you would never admit it. You’d go to church and hear horrible things about people like you, and Billie Jean [King] and Martina [Navratilova] had to disclaim their lesbianism and pretend they were not gay in order to continue working on the tennis circuit, and that was so painful for me when I was a 10-year-old. They didn’t understand. I’ve been trying to explain to them what it was like when I was a kid, and they are stunned.”

Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Justin Mikita

When we spoke to Jesse Tyler Ferguson — who shares sons Beckett (b. 2020) and Sullivan (b. 2022) with husband Justin Mikita, we asked him what his “parenting superpower” is. And his answer had us wiping away tears.

“I think it’s Justin, to be honest,” he told SheKnows exclusively when partnering with Enfamil’s Enspire Optimum baby formula. “He’s definitely the buttress that’s keeping the family together. I just reap the benefits of having someone who’s super organized and great at schedules. The scheduling literally gives me a headache. My mind spins with Beckett. He has a whole schedule of things to do. And then Sully is on his own sleep schedule and eating schedule. It’s a lot. So to have someone who’s so good with managing that is a true gift.”

Nate Berkus & Jeremiah Brent

Interior design power couple Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent are dads to Poppy (b. 2015) and Oskar (b. 2018). In 2023, the dads — who have hosted shows on both TLC and HGTV — appeared on The Today Show, and Berkus talked about how emotional it was to be in Poppy’s nursery while awaiting her arrival.

“You and I were standing in front of this little closet and you opened the door and the light went on automatically and I’ll never forget it,” he said. “…There was a crib set up and there were little dresses hanging there, and it was the start of our life as we know it. It was such a poignant moment and I burst into tears. And everyone knows I’m not a crier.”

The couple also talked about how fatherhood was not something they pictured for themselves when they were growing up. When Brent was a teen, gay marriage wasn’t legal, and “surrogacy didn’t exist in anything that’s recognizable to how it exists today.”

“As we stood in the rooms with the surrogates when they were born, we looked at each other and we knew that it was the convergence of social change, climate, political change, science and opportunity,” Brent said.

Tan France & Rob France

Tan France and his husband Rob share two sons — Ismail (b. 2021) and Isaac (b. 2023) — who were born via surrogate. When Tan announced Baby No. 2 was on the way, he said he was so excited for the boys to have each other

“We wanted [Ismail] to have someone that will be his person that he’s tethered to,” the Queer Eye star said. “I’m really close with my siblings and my husband is really close with his, so we wanted to create a family where [our child] would have more support other than just Rob and I … the most exciting part is that he will have somebody hopefully for the rest of his life that he gets to call his person.” 

Cheyenne Jackson & Justin Landau

Cheyenne Jackson and Justin Landau’s twins Ethan and Willow (b. 2016) had an important conversation with their dads in Jan. 2023.

“Our kids came out,” Jackson said. “As straight. We were eating dinner and out of the blue, Willow says, ‘I don’t think I’m gay.’”

The American Horror Story actor and his husband were in full support of their son, saying they love him no matter what.

“Then, Ethan, without missing a beat and without looking up from his food goes, ‘Yeah, I’m not gay either… but I want to go to the parade.’”

Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah and her partner Eboni Nichols are notoriously private and have been extremely intentional about keeping their son Rebel out of the limelight. In 2022, the then-3-year-old was photographed for the first time.

Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster shares sons Kit (b. 2001) Charles (b. 1998) with ex wife Cydney Foster, and she has always been candid about how thankless it can be to be a mother. And honestly, someone had to say it.

“Every once in a while I’ll have one of those days when I’ve fed the fish, cleaned 10 poops from the patio, taken the cat to the vet, sewn my son’s stupid karate stars on until my fingers bleed and made sure that [Charlie] has everything, and he wakes up and goes, ‘Oh, what’s for breakfast?’” the actor said. “He doesn’t know, and why should he? Right? But there’s absolutely no sort of acknowledgment or reward for this — except for the intangible of my kids growing up to be wonderful people…The only thing about having kids that I miss is being alone.”

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie  — who shares kids Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne with ex-husband Brad Pitt — has never made her bisexuality a secret. The A-lister dated model Jenny Shimizu in the 1990s and has said that she fell in love with her the first second she saw her. She admitted that one of her biggest childhood crushes was Michelle Pfeiffer, and told Barbara Walters in 2003, “‘I consider myself a very sexual person who loves who she loves, whatever sex they may be.”

“I wasn’t looking to have a relationship with a woman. I was surprised when I suddenly found myself having these feelings I always had for men, but for a woman, and wanting to kiss her and wanting to touch her.”

Andy Cohen

Andy Cohen welcomed his first child, Benjamin Allen, in 2019 via surrogate; his second, Lucy Eve, followed in 2022. “When I was growing up and when we were growing up … I just never thought it would be possible, as a gay man, to grow up and have a family,” the Bravo host told Anderson Cooper. 

Megan Fox

“Putting the B in #LGBTQIA for over two decades,” actress Megan Fox shared on Instagram in July 2021 adding three selfies in which she showed off a rainbow manicure. Fox shares three sons with actor Brian Austin Green, Noah (born in 2012), Bohdi (2014), and Journey (2016), and a daughter with Machine Gun Kelly (born in 2025).

Amber Rose

Model and television personality Amber Rose is the mom of two sons —  Sebastian (b. 2013) who she shares with ex-husband Wiz Khalifa and Slash (b. 2020) who she shares with ex Alexander Edwards. In 2011, Rose reflected on her sexual evolution in an interview with Curve. “I’ve always been attracted to girls ever since I was little, and I like boys too,” she said. “But as I got older in my teenage years a lot of the, you know, ‘freaky girls’ who were doing all kind of nasty stuff would say they were bisexual so I never wanted to, because I wasn’t into those things.”

She added, “It was a weird moment in my life when I didn’t know how to like explain to myself I wasn’t gay, but I wasn’t straight…For me, if I was in a relationship with a woman then I was just with her and vice versa.”

Fortunately, Rose had family support. “When I had my first girlfriend—me and my mom are best friends — I just told her and my mom was like, ‘Whatever makes you happy girl,” she explained. “Whatever you like, that’s your business, I don’t care.’ It was really easy for me.”

Evan Rachel Wood

In 2019, actress Evan Rachel Wood spoke to Self reflecting in part on her bisexuality, which she previously hadn’t felt comfortable confronting. However, in talking with her son Jack (who was born in 2013), Wood was surprised by the number of his peers who were open about their sexuality. “That just blows my mind,” she told the outlet. “I can’t even imagine how different my life would’ve been if I could have just been who I was.” 

The actress said she has even asked her son whether he would feel comfortable if she dated a woman. “He was like, ‘I think that would be amazing. That would be so cool!’'” 

Maria Bello & Dominique Crenn

Actress Maria Bello, who is engaged to French chef Dominique Crenn, opened up about her sexuality in a 2013 New York Times article. Specifically, the process of explaining her romantic life to her then-12-year-old son Jackson, whom she shares with ex-husband Dan McDermott.

“I was with someone romantically and I hadn’t told him,” she wrote of Jackson. “I had become involved with a woman who was my best friend, and, as it happens, a person who is like a godmother to my son,” she explained, referring to her then-partner Claire Munn.

Jackson’s response? “Mom, love is love, whatever you are.”

Drew Barrymore

“Do I like women sexually? Yeah, I do. Totally,” Barrymore told Contact Music way back in 2003. “I have always considered myself bisexual … I love a woman’s body. I think a woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful.”

Barrymore is the mother of daughters Olive (born in 2012) and Frankie (born in 2014), whom she shares with ex-husband Will Kopelman.

Fergie

Singer Fergie, formerly of the band Black Eyed Peas, told The Advocate in 2009 that her bisexuality was nothing new — at least to her. “The funny thing is that I was very open and honest about that from the very beginning, and everyone was acting like it was some new trend. Go back four or five years, people, and you’ll see the same answer,” she told the publication.

Fergie shares her son Axl Jack (born in 2013) with ex Josh Duhamel.

Tess Holliday

Tess Holliday is the proud mom of two sons, Rylee (b. 2005)  who she shares with a “one night stand,” and Bowie (b. 2016) who she shares with her ex-husband Nick Holliday. She told Nylon in 2019 that she identifies as pansexual. “…I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship to my own queerness, and I think the word pansexual speaks to me more than bi does,'” she explained. 

Later, the author and model added of her sexuality, “I feel like a lot of stuff in my life now makes sense. A lot of the things that I felt when I was younger make sense.”

“I definitely have a sense of relief,” she told the outlet. “I can connect with people on a more intimate level than I was before, because I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not.”

Billie Joe Armstrong

“I think I’ve always been bisexual. I mean, it’s something that I’ve always been interested in,” Billie Joe Armstrong told The Advocate in 1995 (per Us Weekly). “I think everybody kind of fantasizes about the same sex. I think people are born bisexual, and it’s just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of ‘Oh, I can’t.’ They say it’s taboo. It’s ingrained in our heads that it’s bad, when it’s not bad at all. It’s a very beautiful thing.”

The Green Day singer has two sons, Joey (born in 1995) and Jakob (born in 1998) with wife Adrienne Armstrong.

Wanda Sykes & Alex Sykes

Comedian Wanda Sykes and wife Alex Sykes have the cutest meet-cute story ever: They met on the Fire Island ferry and started spending time together because Sykes was remodeling her kitchen and Niedbalski sold granite countertops. The rest, as they say, is herstory.

“Something really said to me — like, audibly — ‘Wow, that’s what you need, Wanda,'” Sykes told The Guardian of seeing her now-wife for the first time on that ferry. The couple welcomed twins Lucas Claude and Olivia Lou in 2009.

Jillian Michaels

Former BlogHer speaker Jillian Michaels tells SheKnows that while she thinks “it sucks that my kids don’t have a dad,” she makes sure to remind them they are loved.”

“It’s like, hey, some people have one mom, some have one dad — I don’t think we’re special or better than any other family. My kids are loved; that’s what I try to make sure they’re aware of at all times.” 

Michaels shares two kids — Lukensia who was born in 2010 and Phoenix who was born in 2012 — with her ex Heidi Rhoades.

Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin came out as gay in 2010, an experience he reflected during the COVID-19 pandemic during an interview with People. Reflecting on the women he previously dated, the singer mused, “A lot of people have said, ‘Rick, you were trying to prove yourself, because of fame and being a sex symbol.’ Well yeah, it could be. I don’t know.” He added, “Everyone knows you don’t have to be a gay man to know that love is complicated. Or to know how confusing attraction can be.”

Today, Martin shares four children with ex-husband Jwan Yosef. Their daughter Lucia was born in 2018, twin sons Matteo and Valentino were born in 2008, and son Renn was born in 2019.

Cynthia Nixon

Actress Cynthia Nixon shares a transgender son named Seph (who was born in 1996) and a son Charles (born 2002) with ex-husband Danny Mozes. Nixon also shares a son Max (born in 2011) with her wife Christine Marinoni.

In 2019, the Sex and The City star said, “I’m very proud of him. It’s one of those things. I felt really weird using the other pronoun in public, but people didn’t know it yet. He was good with it, and it was really nice, actually, when we announced it. There was some general, you know, voicings of support but generally it was not a big deal… I was kind of shocked at what a non-event it was, which is just how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time.”

Anna Paquin

Actress Anna Paquin found herself defending her sexuality — and her marriage to actor-director Stephen Moyer — when critics questioned why she would marry a man. “I’m a #proudbisexual who is married to a wonderful human who happens to be a man,” Paquin wrote on Instagram in May 2021. She added in the caption: “If he doesn’t have a problem with it why should anyone else?” The two welcomed twins Poppy and Charlie nearly a decade earlier in 2012.

Karamo Brown

Queer Eye‘s Karamo Brown once told Parents that he came out as “a proud, gay man” back in high school. Ten years later, he learned that he had a son named Jason, a product of a teenage relationship. “I was confused, sad, angry, and weirdly excited to be a dad, but felt lost nonetheless,” Brown told the outlet. “We were both kids and don’t blame her for the decision she made because the choice was not hers, it was the adults around us.” Brown then learned that Jason had a half-brother named Chris, whom he later adopted. 

However, the reality star leaned on this advice, he said: “Take it one day at a time, never lose your cool and do just as much listening as you do talking.”

Simon Halls & Matt Bomer

Simon Halls and Matt Bomer share three sons, Kit, Walker, and Henry. Bomer told RuPaul that his eldest actually “came out” to him: “Our oldest came out to us as straight [when he was 14]. He said, ‘I love and respect that you guys are who you are. I’m straight; that’s how I identify.’ And it was a big nice, sweet moment,” Metro News UK reported.

Neil Patrick Harris & David Burtka

Actor Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka welcomed twins Harper and Gideon via surrogate in 2010. “We inserted one of my sperm and one of David’s sperm into two eggs with the hope that they would both take, just because we both wanted to be dads biologically. And both took, miraculously,” the How I Met Your Mother star told CTV News. “I have no interest in [finding out who is related]. We are their parents and I love them both implicitly.” 

Although, he adds: “We certainly have suspicions just based on their behavior.”

Anderson Cooper

Journalist Anderson Cooper shares two sons with ex-boyfriend Benjamin Maisani. They welcomed their oldest, Wyatt Morgan Cooper in May 2020, and Sebastian Luke Maisani, in Feb. 2022.

“As a gay kid, I never thought it would be possible to have a child,” Cooper wrote on Instagram after Wyatt was born. “I’m grateful for all those who have paved the way, and for the doctors and nurses and everyone involved in my son’s birth. Most of all, I am grateful to a remarkable surrogate who carried Wyatt, and watched over him lovingly, and tenderly, and gave birth to him. It is an extraordinary blessing — what she, and all surrogates, give to families who can’t have children.”

Perez Hilton

Perez Hilton is a dad of three kids born via surrogate: Mario (born in 2013), Mia (born in 2015), and Mayte (2017)

When Mayte was born, Hilton used his birth announcement on Instagram as an oppportunity to advocate for surrogates give much to families that can’t expand their families in traditional ways. 

“Most importantly, thank you to the surrogate who gave me the greatest gift anyone could ever receive,” he wrote on Instagram. “And thank you to the other two surrogates who helped us as well! And thank you to all the surrogates who give so selflessly and whose kindness is inspiring! There are still many states in America that, sadly, prohibit surrogacy and I hope to use my voice to advocate for making it legal across the country!” 

Mel B

Former Spice Girl Melanie Brown, (AKA Mel B) opened up about her bisexuality in her 2018 memoir Brutally Honest, noting that prior to dating Eddie Murphy, “I’d come out of a very beautiful, loving, five-year relationship with a woman (one I will never, ever discuss because she was extremely private and I will always respect that).”

Mel B’s three kids are huge fans of their mom. She shares daughter Angel (born in 2007) with Murphy, daughter Phoenix (born in 1999) with Jimmy Gulzar, and daughter Madison (born in 2011) with Stephen Belafonte.

David Furnish & Elton John

Singer Elton John told Today in 2016 that his children were his proudest achievements. “That was the greatest decision I’ve made — well — we’ve made, in the last six years, is to have those boys,” he said. “They’re our primary concern. They’re the things that come first and foremost.”

John and filmmaker David Furnish welcomed their sons via the same surrogate; Zachary in 2010 and Elijah in 2013.

Amber Heard

In 2019, actress Amber Heard wrote a powerful piece for Teen Vogue reflecting on how she struggled to define her sexuality while growing up. “There wasn’t a single person I could reference who was openly queer, so I had no idea how to make sense of my feelings,” she wrote. “Like many children, I longed for someone to say: ‘Amber, you’re not broken. You’re beautiful just as you are.'” 

In April 2021, the actress welcomed a daughter named Oonagh Paige Heard. “Four years ago, I decided I wanted to have a child,” she shared on Instagram.” I wanted to do it on my own terms. I now appreciate how radical it is for us as women to think about one of the most fundamental parts of our destinies in this way. I hope we arrive at a point in which it’s normalized to not want a ring in order to have a crib.” Heard added of her daughter, “She’s the beginning of the rest of my life.”

Heard is also mom to twins Ocean and Agnes (born in 2025).

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