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Jamie Lee Curtis’ daughter Ruby opens up about telling parents she is transgender: ‘I wasn’t worried’
25-year-old says: ‘I’m happy to be more visible if it helps others’
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Your support makes all the difference.Jamie Lee Curtis’ daughter Ruby has opened up about coming out as transgender to her parents, revealing that the experience was “scary”.
The 25-year-old spoke candidly about the conversation, which was set to take place last year between herself, her mother and her father, actor and comedian Christopher Guest, during an interview with People, where she recalled how she’d been “intimidated” but not worried about telling her parents.
“It was scary - just the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know,” Ruby, a video editor for a YouTube personality, told the outlet. “It was intimidating - but I wasn’t worried. They had been so accepting of me my entire life.”
However, according to Ruby, despite her parents’ understanding, she wasn’t able to have the conversation face-to-face, with the video editor recalling how she’d left the family’s home and then texted her mother after.
Curtis said Ruby’s text prompted her to call her daughter immediately, with the actor noting: “Needless to say there were some tears involved.”
While speaking with the outlet, the Halloween star then spoke candidly about her role as a parent to a transgender child, revealing that she is dedicated to learning and supporting Ruby, even if it means occasionally making mistakes.
“It’s speaking a new language,” the 62-year-old Golden Globe winner said. “It’s learning new terminology and words. I am new at it. I am not someone who is pretending to know much about it. And I’m going to blow it, I’m going to make mistakes. I would like to try to avoid making big mistakes.”
However, according to Curtis, who joined Ruby to talk about her journey publicly for the first time, what is most important is helping others.
“But if one person reads this, sees a picture of Ruby and me and says: ‘I feel free to say this is who I am,’ then it’s worth it,” she said.
During the interview, Ruby also reflected on the moment she first became aware of her identity, with the 25-year-old recalling how, when she was 16, a friend who is trans had asked what her gender was.
“I told them: ‘Well, I’m male.’ After, I’d dwell on the thought. I knew I was - maybe not Ruby per se, but I knew I was different,” she recalled, adding that, seven years later, she told the person who is now her fiancé that she was “probably trans” and that “they said: ‘I love you for who you are.’”
Ruby’s recollection prompted Curtis to reveal that it had been the first time she had heard her daughter use her dead name since she had come out as transgender, with the actor acknowledging that the name “so doesn’t fit anymore” but that she and her husband still “slip occasionally”.
Curtis also expressed her support for her daughter, telling the outlet that it is “her job” to be supportive of Ruby, before noting that she is still learning and constantly asking how she can do better.
In response, Ruby told her mother: “You’ve done the most you can, and that’s all I want. Helping others is something everyone should do. I don’t think it’s only our household thing. It should be a human thing.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Ruby, who acknowledged that she has tried to stay out of the spotlight despite having famous parents, said that she is happy to be visible “if it helps others”.
On Wednesday, Curtis shared a photo of the People cover along with her daughter’s quote about helping others to Instagram, where she wrote: “Ruby I am proud to be your mother. Today more than ever.”
This is not the first time that Curtis has opened up about her daughter’s identity, as the actor previously told AARP The Magazine that she and her husband have “watched in wonder and pride as our son became our daughter Ruby”.
At the time, the Halloween Kills star, who also shares daughter Annie, 34, with Guest, revealed that she would be officiating her daughter’s upcoming wedding.
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