Welcome Out Meridith Baxter

Jim Burroway

December 2nd, 2009

Meridith Baxter today (L) and while on Family Ties (R)

Meridith Baxter today (L) and while on Family Ties (R)

She played the Mom, Elyse Keaton, from 1982 to 1989 on Family Ties , the sitcom that launched Michael J. Fox’s career in the U.S. She was actually only fourteen years older than Fox when she played his mother on the series. Before that, she was on the painfully earnest and perpetually sad-faced drama Family from 1986 to 1980, which earned her two Emmy Awards in 1978 and 1979. Since then, she has directed and stared in several TV movies and launched her own skin care product line, Meredith Baxter Simple Works, which raises money for breast cancer research.

This morning, Meridith Baxter came out as a lesbian on the Today Show:

“I am a lesbian and it was a later-in-life recognition,” she told Matt Lauer on TODAY. “Some people would say, well, you\’re living a lie and, you know, the truth is — not at all. This has only been for the past seven years.”

Baxter, 62, though anxious, decided to come out on national television after her sexuality became tabloid fodder.

“I\’ve always lived a very private life,” said the actress, who\’s never even had a publicist. “To come out and disclose stuff is very antithetical to who I am.”

The National Enquirer reported that Baxter was seen on a lesbian cruise in the Caribbean “with a female friend, and she seemed very relaxed and comfortable.” Yesterday, Perez Hilton posted more recent photos of Meredith with her girlfriend. She then decided to come out under her own steam. “I did not want some tabloid to take the story and make it up — I wanted it to be in my own words,” she told Lauer.

Meridith Baxter (L) and her girlfriend Nancy

Meridith Baxter (L) and her girlfriend Nancy

She had married and divorced three times between 1966 and 2000, but she disclosed to Matt Lauer that she always chose men with whom she clashed, so that she could blame them for the end of the relationship. “It never occurred to me to think, oh, [the problem is] me,” she said. Then she met a woman seven years ago and suddenly things started to make sense:

“I got involved with someone I never expected to get involved with, and it was that kind of awakening,” she said. “I never fought it because it was like, oh, I understand why I had the issues I had early in life. I had a great deal of difficulty connecting with men in relationships.”

Meridith has been with her current girlfriend Nancy for four years.

Swampfox

December 2nd, 2009

I fell out my chair when I heard this today. I wish her the best ……. and, the acceptance of her children and family.

Richard W. Fitch

December 2nd, 2009

Amazing disclosure. Looking at then/now pics – only difference I see now is a genuine smile and a better ‘do’.

Moriah

December 3rd, 2009

This put a smile on my face. After all the negativity I’ve heard today regarding gays, I’m glad this story has a happy ending.

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