What do you bring to the world premiere of a standout ballet performance in New York City? If you're actress Fran Drescher, the only answer is your gay ex-husband, longtime television producer Peter Marc Jacobson.
Drescher's first husband of 21 years was her date when People magazine caught up with the couple before principal dancer Tiler Peck took to the stage for George Balanchine’s ballet Diamonds at the Spring Gala on May 7.
“He's my gay ex-husband. He's my best friend and he's always around,” Drescher, 68, said. “But we try and make sure that he's not too much of a cockblock.”
The star ofThe Nanny — the TV series they co-created in 1993 along with Happy Divorced in 2011— also brings Jacobson, 68, with her on vacations, including a recent trip to Germany. Asked whether that scares away other men who may want to flirt with her, Drescher said, “That might have been, but for the most part, everybody knows who he is.”
And who he is, said Drescher, is more than just her ex.
"He's my life partner. He's my work partner,” she said, and has hinted to her social media followers that their trip to Berlin wasn't just a getaway.
The Marty Supreme actress posted on Instagram that she was in Berlin “shooting,” adding, “more to come on that.” “My first time here,” she wrote of the German capital. “All my friends who have spent time in Berlin said we will love it and we do! Great restaurants, museums, shopping, city park and hotels.”
“I take him to everything, and I don't really care,” Drescher told People “I have a gay ex-husband — live with it! But I've been with him since I was 15. Who can compete with that? And over the years, he grew tremendously. He's not the same person. Neither one of us are who we were when we were married."
Drescher remarried following Jacobson's coming out in 1999 and their divorce, which he spoke openly about in an interview with Out in 2012. But her marriage to Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai in September 2014 ended in 2016. She's been single ever since and said she loves it.
“Selfishly, I don’t want to compromise. That's a lot of what it is when you're with somebody … but the more you live on your own, the less you want to do that, and the less you need it if you happen to have a gay ex-husband.”
Drescher made headlines in Out in 2012 when she announced she is available to officiate at same-sex weddings, and was part of a contest to do just that, three years before marriage equality became the law of the land. So, in March of that year she helped one lucky gay couple -- Tom Wahlen and Russell Kemp --tie the knot at XL Nightclub in New York City. The couple, who have been together for 20 years, won the "'Love is Love" TV Land contest.
