Meredith Baxter Comes Out as Lesbian on the Today Show

TV Mom Meredith Baxter reveals to Matt Lauer she's gay. Best known as TV sitcom Mom on Family Ties, Baxter has been seeing contractor Nancy Locke for four years. Married three times with five children, Meredith, also known as Meredith Baxter Birney, finally felt comfortable sharing this news with Lauer on the Today Show.

Meredith Ann Baxter (born June 21, 1947), formerly Meredith Baxter Birney, said in the exclusive interview with Matt Lauer on Wednesday, December 2nd, "If you knew me before, and you cared about me before, I'm the same woman." You'll be more apt to vote on gay issues.

In 2006, Meredith Baxter temporarily co-hosted the Today Show with Matt Lauer. She didn't want a big tabloid rumor spreading around, which is why she felt she needed to "share" this news with him on the national news show, The Today Show, and to tell the world she was dating women, currently Nancy Locke, a contractor whom Baxter has been seeing for four years.

Meredith Baxter admits she never expected this to happen, wasn't looking to date women, as she had been married three times. Her first marriage to Robert Lewis Bush in 1966 resulted in two children, and ended in divorce in 1971. She then married actor David Birney, having three children with him, after which they divorced in 1989. In 1995 she married actor and screenwriter Michael Blodgett which ended in divorce in 2000.

Her most well known role was as TV Mom, Elyse Keaton on Family Ties, which aired from 1982 to 1989. Her TV "son", Michael J. Fox, was 14 years younger than his TV "Mom".

In a previous interview with People, the magazine reports, "Most people know Meredith Baxter as Elyse Keaton, everyone's favorite mom from the hit '80s sitcom Family Ties. But now the actress reveals to People that she's ready for the world to see her in a different – and surprising – way: "I'm a lesbian mom," she says.

Pick up this week's issue of People magazine for more about Baxter's decision to come out and her life with her partner, Nancy Locke.

Sources and photo credit: people.com; Alan Light (Wikipedia)

Written by Donna Diegel
HULIQ.com