‘Always Sunny’ star Rob McElhenney celebrates his lesbian moms
McElhenney called his two moms a "great gift" in a spotlight for GLAAD
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney has celebrated his lesbian moms in a video for GLAAD, calling them a “great gift.”
The video, released in honor of Mother’s Day, focuses on Helena McElhenney and Mary Taylor, his moms, who first met 37 years ago.
It was love at first sight, and Helena and Mary moved in together and helped raise Helena’s children together.
“The minute I met her, she was the person that I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with,” Helena said in the video.
Taylor added: “I would go home and say, ‘I met this woman. I just love her. I can’t help myself. The blue eyes melt my heart. Then it hit, and love is love.”
Helena acknowledged that their “unconventional” family wasn’t without its dangers, given societal attitudes at the time.
“I was afraid not only for my children but for myself,” she said, with Taylor adding that it was “really tough” at times, “but we got through it.”
“If I could go back, I would tell me to not be afraid, to be strong and know that because you are who you are and you have a loving family, that they’ll support you,” Helena said.
In a statement alongside the video, McElhenney said he is “asked a lot about what it was like to have two moms.”
“The truth is that it was a pretty great gift,” he said. “By the standards of 1984 South Philadelphia, our upbringing was unconventional, but my brother, sister and I were able to recognize early on that not every family looked exactly the same or like what we saw on television.
“Yet we had nothing but love and support and compassion and empathy,” he continued. “And I think that that allowed us to flourish.”
In a tweet, he added that he was “so proud to call both of these ladies ‘Mom’.”
No family looks exactly the same. So proud to call both of these ladies “Mom”. @mommcelhenney @marytaylor2 https://t.co/WhClX9OXKj
— Rob McElhenney (@RMcElhenney) May 6, 2021
McElhenney, who also stars in the AppleTV+ series Mythic Quest, is a longtime ally of the LGBTQ community. In addition to his mothers, he has two gay brothers, and his character on Always Sunny, Mac, is gay.
He previously discussed Mac’s coming out on the show and directly related it to his upbringing surrounded by gay people.
“I was partly raised by two women, and I have two brothers who are gay, so I have always been part of the gay community. It’s just always been a part of my life,” McElhenney told Deadline in 2018. “Mac’s sexuality wasn’t obvious to us in the beginning. Slowly but surely we realized we had an interesting opportunity.
“Mac was showing a lot of signs of being a closeted homosexual, and it could be interesting to have him come out. That’s something we wanted to address this year. And, yes, it was something that was important to me.”
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