December 2, 2009.Meredith Baxter, 62, came out as gay this morning on the Today Show with Matt Lauer, revealing she’s been in a lesbian relationship with contractor Nancy Locke, 54, and has lived with her partner for two of the four years they’ve been together. She also granted an interview to the Advocate and People Magazine about coming out as a lesbian, before appearing on Wednesday's Today Show (See the video at the bottom of this post). Baxter has been married three times and has five grown kids, but the Family Ties star says she came out to herself and family about seven years ago.
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Recent photo of Meredith Baxter showing she still has the looks and personality of a starShe decided to go public after discovering the National Enquirer was about to report she was spotted on a lesbian cruise recently and that Perez Hilton was about to “out her,” something Perez more or less denies (Scroll down to see the video of him on The View this morning, wherein he says, “You can’t out somebody who’s not in the closet.”).
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Recent photo showing Meredith Baxter (seated) with her twins Mollie and Peter and partner Nancy Locke
From the Advocate: “Since her TV career heyday in the 1970s and ’80s as a darling of the popular prime-time series Family and Family Ties, Meredith Baxter has mainly flown under the radar, with the exception of a few acclaimed turns in made-for-TV movies such as My Breast and A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story. That is until she boarded the Sweet Caribbean Cruise with thousands of other lesbians last month. If the woman who famously played Elyse Keaton, liberal mother to Michael J. Fox’s conservative Alex on the long-running sitcom Family Ties, thought she would go unnoticed amid generations of gay women who idolized her for her blond-haired, blue-eyed, all-American good looks, she was wrong.”
Vintage photo of Meredith Baxter and her TV family from the 1976-1980 Family Ties sitcom. Pictured are Meredith Baxter (Birney), Justine Bateman, Michael J. Fox, Michael Gross, and Tina Yothers. The Advocate asked her several questions, among them: “When did you realize you were gay?”
She answered, “Thirteen years ago I had a short-term affair with somebody—a woman—who I just cared for tremendously as a person, [I] was not really attracted to her, but the best way to describe it, [a romance] seemed like the next natural step in our relationship just because I cared about her a lot. Not once—it's probably hard to imagine—but not once did it occur to me that I was a lesbian. Not once. I just thought, OK, I don't think so, and went off and got married again for a short period of time. And a couple years after that, I entered my next foray into being with a woman, and the penny dropped at that point . . . I just said, ‘Okay. I understand.’”
Photo of the reunion of Family Ties on the Today Show in 2008. Pictured are Michael Gross, Justine Bateman, Meredith Baxter, Tina Yothers, and Michael J. Fox. Check out the video of the event below.
Meredith Baxter continues to work. Here's a photo of Meredith Baxter and Lesley Ann Warren from the 2009 Hallmark movie Bound by A Secret
Photo of Nancy Locke and Meredith Baxter sharing an embrace for the People Magazine photographers
Nancy Locke and Meredith Baxter return home after shopping yesterday. 12-1-09 photo
Nancy Locke and Meredith Baxter take a look at the gossip rags before going into the house after a day of shopping. 12-1-09 photo
Check out Perez Hilton on The View today in this 12-2-09 video, as he talks about Meredith Baxter’s coming out:
Listen to this video: Meredith Baxter also appeared on Frank DeCaro's Sirius Radio Show yesterday to talk about her coming out (scooping the Today show). Listen, (audio only):
Watch this video of the Family Ties Reunion on Today Show, February 2008:
Photo of yellow Double Campernelle Daffodil growing in Oklahoma's Zone 7 from the author's free flower photo website http://www.freefishcaretips.com/pohotos18Also visit http://www.galechesterwhittington.com/ for free humor, short stories, poems, and book excerpts from the award-winning gay author
==copyright 2009==
3 comments:
I wrote a novel about a woman coming out late-in-life called Seeking Sara Summers. For these women it isn't about getting their 15 minutes of fame (a criticism of Meredith Baxter on another site), it's about getting a life. I think it takes a tremendous amount of courage to simply be who you are.
Meredith and Nancy were on "Oprah" this afternoon. Nancy, obviously, wears the pants in that household. Meredith spent 45 minutes telling us how domineering David Birney was. Well, she's hooked up with a female version of him. Nancy may not be abusive, but she certainly is the boss. I don't think Meredith has learned YET that she doesn't have to sit, stay, or roll over.
I came looking for info on Nancy's age, actually, and was stunned at the answer! With all their money can't they do anything for her?
Everyone needs to remember that Nancy & Meredith do not answer to us!!! WE ARE NOT JUDGE & JURY... Congrats to both... Maybe Meredith now has the love & happiness she so deserves. My wish for her...
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