Busy Philipps Reveals Her 12-Year-Old Child, Birdie Silverstein, Is Gay

Busy Philipps is speaking candidly about her eldest child Birdie Leigh’s sexuality and identity journey, revealing last week that the 12-year-old is gay, and prefers they/them pronouns. The former talk show host shared the news with Birdie’s permission on Thursday’s Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best podcast, explaining that Birdie came out to her and husband Marc Silverstein about two years ago.

“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, also mother to 7-year-old daughter Cricket, shared on her podcast. “Birdie told us at 10 years old and we immediately… I mean obviously, I knew that Birdie knew.”

Philipps continued that she has been working to use they/them pronouns with Birdie after admittedly doing a “bad job” with them at first. “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,” she explained.

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.’”

The Freaks and Geeks actress recalled a heartbreaking moment when Birdie told her, “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.” It was an emotional moment for the mother-of-two, who responded, “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.”

She continued, “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 Cougar Town star reassured her child, “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.”