Busy Philipps Reveals Her 12-Year-Old Child Birdie Is Gay, Prefers They/Them Pronouns
Busy Philipps is opening up about her eldest child Birdie Leigh's journey regarding their sexuality and identity.
The 41-year-old actress revealed Birdie, now 12, came out as gay when she was 10, on Thursday's episode of her Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best podcast. Philipps also shared that Birdie prefers they/them pronouns.
"For those of you who are my friends listening at home, this is the first you're hearing that Birdie is gay and out," Philipps told her cohosts Shantira Jackson and Caissie St. Onge. "Birdie told us at 10 years old and we immediately... I mean obviously, I knew that Birdie knew."
Philipps shares Birdie and 7-year-old daughter Cricket Pearl with her husband, screenwriter Marc Silverstein.
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Elsewhere in the podcast, Philipps spoke about Birdie's pronouns.
"I said, 'You know, Bird, I've been doing a bad job with the pronouns,' " Philipps recalled. "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 continued, "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."
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The Dawson's Creek actress went on to share that she recently found Birdie "lying on the floor in the dark" listening to Harry Styles' Fine Line album on repeat in a moment of deep introspection from the preteen.
"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,' " Philipps said.
"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,' " the actress continued. "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.' "
The White Chicks star added, "'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."
