Billy Porter Opens Up About Being HIV Positive And His Mixed-Status Marriage With Husband Adam Smith
They have a cute story about they met.
Billy Porter has revealed he is HIV positive and opened up about the realities of living with the virus within a mixed-status relationship.
Porter’s husband, Adam Smith, is not HIV positive, but the couple is as unified as always as Porter sheds light on what his diagnosis looks like today.
Porter was diagnosed with HIV in 2007, two years before he met his now-husband. He says he was fearful his status would only create more avenues for discrimination in his career so he kept it largely a secret for over a decade.
However, when Smith and Porter left New York City for Long Island to lower their exposure to Covid-19, he was forced to confront the shame he was carrying.
“COVID created a safe space for me to stop and reflect and deal with the trauma in my life,” he says.
Who is Billy Porter’s husband, Adam Smith?
If you don’t know much about the couple, get to know them. Here’s everything about their adorable relationship and Smith’s successful career.
Billy Porter and Adam Smith met in 2009.
In a love story that would rival any good rom-com, Billy Porter and Adam Smith’s 2017 wedding was eight years in the making.
The pair were introduced by mutual friends at a dinner in New York — but Porter had his eyes on Smith before he arrived at the table.
“I was cruisin’ him as he walked up the street, and he stopped, and he was with us!” the actor-musician recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, well, I’ll be sittin’ next to this handsome specimen tonight!'
The couple dated for a year before splitting but remaining friends. Porter recalls feeling regret over the breakup.
“I remember saying to my therapist, ‘Now I know what love looks like, and it just walked out the door,'” he said. In 2015, after years of unacknowledged feelings on both sides, Porter finally decided to declare his love to Smith.
“‘I love you, and I’ve always loved you, and if there’s any chance, I would like another shot — I would like us to have another shot at this,'” he remembers saying.
Adam Smith owns a luxury eyewear brand.
Smith is the co-owner of Native Ken, a New York-based luxury eyewear brand. However, his educational credentials are somewhat surprising for a business owner.
Smith studied at the California University of Fine Arts and graduated with a BFA in 2003.
He did obtain plenty of experience in the luxury space afterward, working in roles at Chanel and Jill Sanders before founding Native Ken.
Smith was raised in Texas.
Smith grew up just outside of Dallas in Texas and says his upbringing was not filled with much acceptance towards his sexuality.
Porter, who was raised in the Pentecostal church, had a similar experience.
“We both grew up in households where who we are is labeled an ‘abomination,'” Porter said ahead of his wedding. “The thought of marriage, there was no context for it — there was no dreaming about it because there was no context to dream; it was unspoken and very clear that the sanctity of marriage was not for us.”
Smith and Porter were engaged for just 16 days before their wedding.
The couple got engaged in London at the end of 2016 but decided not to wait around to plan their wedding.
With Obama’s presidency coming to an end, and the Trump administration about to take hold, Smith and Porter decided they wanted to marry under a president who had championed LGBTQ rights.
“We felt like, with everything that we’re gonna have to fight for coming up, the unknown that we’re going into, we want to be married doing that,” Porter said.
Smith planned the wedding in 10 days and the couple wed at a friend’s Manhattan penthouse in front of 45 loved ones.
Today, Porter and Smith remain #couplegoals!
Now, four years of married life later, the couple is as devoted to one another as ever.
For Porter’s 50th birthday in 2019, Smith even threw him a star-studded birthday party.
And for every award show that Porter arrives at with his killer genderfluid style, Smith is by his side.
Smith and Porter have no plans to have children.
In 2017, Smith and Porter boasted about their nine nieces and nephews, and their sisters who plan to have more children but said they wouldn’t be adding to the pack.
“We love children! But I think we’re gonna be guncles,” Smith said before Porter revealed they planned to get a dog.
The couple made good on that promise in 2021 when they welcomed their cockapoo, Bader Lola Majors, into their lives.
Billy Porter and Adam Smith are breaking the stigma around HIV.
The myths and misconceptions around HIV can make people hesitant to enter a relationship with an HIV-positive person — but Porter challenges the stereotypes.
Porter revealed that, with the help of regular doctor’s visits, he is able to manage his diagnosis.
“My T-cell levels are twice yours because of this medication,” he said, referring to immune system cells that are attacked by HIV.
And, importantly, his husband has not been directly impacted by the diagnosis.
“I’m completely undetectable. That’s the amazing part of the developments,” Porter said.
The supportive couple have maintained solidarity through Porter’s HIV journey but we’d expect nothing less of these two.
Alice Kelly is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Catch her covering all things social justice, news, and entertainment. Keep up with her on Twitter for more.