In a recent interview, married couple
Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent said that they feel a responsibility
to be role models for other gay men.
Berkus and Brent, who married in 2014
and are raising a daughter and a son, are the hosts of TLC's Nate
& Jeremiah by Design, a reality series in which they help
homeowners with renovation disasters.
During an appearance on Larry King
Now, a viewer asked the couple, “Do you see yourselves as role
models for other gay men? How do you feel about having that
responsibility?”
“I definitely feel a responsibility
to showcase and to continue the work of the LGBTQ advocates that have
happened before us,” Brent answered. “I'm still, I think,
personally working on whatever role model means. But, yeah, I think
we definitely feel like we have a responsibility to continue to move
that needle forward.”
“We're the only family currently, gay
family like us with two fathers on TV with two kids right now,”
Berkus said. “That's it. On all the networks. On all the primetime.
On cable. That we're the only ones. And so there is an inherent
responsibility built into that. However, I think, what is more
important than the responsibility to be a political role model is to
be a human role model.”
“What we put out there and how we
behave, on camera and off camera, is very important to us. It's not
lost on us that people are paying attention to us,” he
added.
Elsewhere in the interview, Berkus
called Brent his “great love.”