Speaker 1: We're ten years apart, and she's been my best friend
Speaker 1: since she was a baby. I was queer very early
Speaker 1: in our community. That came with a lot of pushback
Speaker 1: from our community. You know, when it was time to
Speaker 1: make the unconditional love choice. She and my mother both
Speaker 1: made that choice in the faith of an entire community
Speaker 1: and infrastructure, telling them both that they were going to burn.
Speaker 2: In hell for doing so.
Speaker 3: That was the incomparable Billy Porter And to kick off
Speaker 3: Pride Month today, we are sharing a special best of
Speaker 3: episode with the Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award winning artist
Speaker 3: on the My Legacy podcast. Joining him is his beloved
Speaker 3: sister and best friend, Mary Martha Ford, whose unconditional love
Speaker 3: has helped shape his remarkable journey. Hosted by Martin Luther
Speaker 3: King the Third and his wife Andrea Waters King, and
Speaker 3: their friends Mark and Craig Kilberger, this episode is a
Speaker 3: powerful reminder of what it means to live your truth,
Speaker 3: no matter the cost. Together, Billy and Mary Martha teach
Speaker 3: us what it takes to choose yourself in a world
Speaker 3: that tells you not to, how unconditional love can break
Speaker 3: generational cycles, the role of art in healing trauma, and
Speaker 3: why authenticity isn't just brave, it's necessary. This is one
Speaker 3: of our most moving episodes and a celebration of the
Speaker 3: courage it takes to live out loud.
Speaker 4: Let's jump in, well, welcome to my legacy. We're here
Speaker 4: with Billy Porter. Billy, you are on the brink of
Speaker 4: egot status, an elite group of artists who have won
Speaker 4: the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar and the Tony. His
Speaker 4: extraordinary life story is one of courage, resilience, and authenticity,
Speaker 4: and we hope it will inspire you to create a
Speaker 4: living legacy and lead a more fulfilled life. On this podcast,
Speaker 4: we don't just hear from iconic figures. We also connect
Speaker 4: with the people who know them best to give us
Speaker 4: deeper understanding of the challenges and the triumphs that have
Speaker 4: shaped their legacy. Joining Billy today is his sister, Mary
Speaker 4: Martha Ford, whose love and support have been central to
Speaker 4: his remarkable journey. Billy and Mary Martha, what a privilege
Speaker 4: it is to be with you, and thank you for
Speaker 4: being here. And so, Billy, we got to start off
Speaker 4: by asking you to introduce Mary Martha and sharing what
Speaker 4: makes her such an important person in your life.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, Mary Martha Elizabeth Ford is my baby sister.
Speaker 1: We're ten years apart, and she's been my best friend
Speaker 1: since she was a baby. It's like I couldn't wait
Speaker 1: till she was old enough so we could like hang out.
Speaker 1: I was like, get your childhood all over with please,
Speaker 1: so we can hang out. You know, I call her
Speaker 1: the rock star because you know, she turned she has
Speaker 1: turned a very complicated life into something great for herself
Speaker 1: and everyone around her.
Speaker 2: And I'm just, you know, honored to call her my
Speaker 2: rock star sister.
Speaker 4: Oh the sweet thank you, it's beautiful. I love that
Speaker 4: I'm here with my brother.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 4: I just I've got goosebumps or as you would say,
Speaker 4: god bumps listening to that one. I love it, Billy.
Speaker 4: So we're talking about legacy, and can you take us
Speaker 4: way back to Pittsburgh. Can you tell us a little
Speaker 4: bit about your childhood and maybe share a story that
Speaker 4: really helps to shine a light on what life was
Speaker 4: like for you growing up in your younger years.
Speaker 1: It was tough, you know, it was traumatizing very often,
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of love.
Speaker 2: As well.
Speaker 1: And I had a lot of angels in my life
Speaker 1: who were encamped around me who saw me in ways
Speaker 1: that sometimes my immediate family, my immediate sort of community.
Speaker 2: Didn't understand.
Speaker 1: And these people were able to just kind of guide
Speaker 1: me in the right directions so that I could dream
Speaker 1: and accomplish beyond my circumstance. You know, A music teacher
Speaker 1: identified that I could think. And from that point on,
Speaker 1: you know, in the fifth grade, and from that point on,
Speaker 1: the angels in my life stepped in and made sure
Speaker 1: that I, you know, that I was able to, like
Speaker 1: I said, dream and accomplish beyond my circumstance.
Speaker 6: Mary Martha, I've got a question for you, yes, being
Speaker 6: ten years younger, what was your down dynamic like when Billy,
Speaker 6: you know, kind of growing up and how has it evolved?
Speaker 2: How is it evolved?
Speaker 7: So I don't remember him until my first memory was
Speaker 7: maybe when we were five, five or six and it
Speaker 7: was Christmas morning. That's one of my first memories, Christmas
Speaker 7: morning and him waking me up and taking me like
Speaker 7: I rode his back into the living room and there
Speaker 7: were gifts and there were gifts that he bought me
Speaker 7: with his own money because he had a job where
Speaker 7: he yet kenny Wood which because Kennywood Park, which was
Speaker 7: our amusement Park. I just remember Billy being kind and
Speaker 7: my friend, someone that I looked up to, and he
Speaker 7: was always singing, and so we were always everywhere where
Speaker 7: he was singing and performing.
Speaker 2: My mom and I would be there all of the time.
Speaker 7: I should have been at home on a school night,
Speaker 7: but I was in the theater wherever he was. That's
Speaker 7: where we were, and so that's how I ended up
Speaker 7: catching the theater bug as well. How has it evolved?
Speaker 7: It has evolved from being I don't know, just brother
Speaker 7: and sister to best friends, and so I can call
Speaker 7: him about anything. We talk every morning, you know, there's
Speaker 7: you know, just to check in how you doing. I'm
Speaker 7: doing all right, what you're doing today? And I'm very
Speaker 7: grateful for that. I recognize that the relationship as siblings
Speaker 7: that he and I have is not one that lots
Speaker 7: of people can say that they have with their siblings,
Speaker 7: and so it's something that I used to take for granted,
Speaker 7: which I don't take for granted anymore because now I
Speaker 7: recognize how true and precious it is.
Speaker 5: What's so fascinating to me about that story, though, is
Speaker 5: I can just imagine, see if you were in fifth
Speaker 5: grade and then Billy is about ten years older than you.
Speaker 5: Like you all said a little bit earlier that there's
Speaker 5: a lot of trauma kind of growing up. But here, this,
Speaker 5: to me, says it all about your heart, about the
Speaker 5: fact of being an entertainer. You worked, just make sure
Speaker 5: I heard the story correctly, and then make sure that
Speaker 5: your sister had a good Christmas, your baby's sister. It's
Speaker 5: almost like that, you know that protection. But not only that,
Speaker 5: it seemed like there was so much joy. You got
Speaker 5: as much joy that Christmas morning. I just thought that
Speaker 5: that's such a beauty. I actually almost bought tears in
Speaker 5: my eyes just I can kind of see you all,
Speaker 5: you know, going through that, and I think it's so extraordinary,
Speaker 5: and I'm so I'm also curious, then, Billy, how has
Speaker 5: your sister been a source of strength for you throughout
Speaker 5: your lives growing up?
Speaker 2: Don't cry she.
Speaker 1: You know, she was younger than me and I was
Speaker 1: queer very early in our community. That came with a
Speaker 1: lot of pushback.
Speaker 2: From our.
Speaker 1: Community and our family, and you know, when it was
Speaker 1: time to make the unconditional love choice, she and my
Speaker 1: mother both made that choice in the faith of an
Speaker 1: entire community and infrastructure telling them both that they were
Speaker 1: going to burn in hell for doing so. Mary Martha
Speaker 1: was the first, you know, person that I came out
Speaker 1: to in my family, even before you know, when she
Speaker 1: was sixteen, Yeah, before my mother. Well no, I told
Speaker 1: my mother, but my mother wasn't able to receive it
Speaker 1: for a while. So my sister was was able to
Speaker 1: receive it at such a young age, and she was
Speaker 1: so present in the moment for me and so evolved,
Speaker 1: you know, And it was something that I had worked
Speaker 1: on trying to give her, you know, trying to actually.
Speaker 2: Be the same kind of angel.
Speaker 1: For her that I had experienced for myself, to show
Speaker 1: her that there were spaces outside of our immediate infrastructure.
Speaker 1: There were people outside of.
Speaker 2: Our status quo.
Speaker 1: And experiences outside of that.
Speaker 2: That were just as important.
Speaker 1: And more important than the religious dogma that.
Speaker 2: You know, was trying to sort of be ingrained at us.
Speaker 1: There were other options, and I was sort of trying
Speaker 1: to show her those other options. And I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that they had taken hold until I came out to
Speaker 1: her at sixteen.
Speaker 2: They had already taken hold. All of those things that.
Speaker 1: I was trying to instill, had already taken hold and
Speaker 1: it was you know, it was magical, It was emotional,
Speaker 1: and it was gratifying and spiritual and all those things you.
Speaker 5: Know when you've heard something and it stays with you.
Speaker 5: If you're still thinking about this conversation, don't keep it
Speaker 5: to yourself. Subscribe to my Legacy podcast, share it with
Speaker 5: someone who's navigating something hard, or just a way to say.
Speaker 6: I see you.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 8: Back to my Legacy will Billy and Mary Martha. We
Speaker 8: admire your tenacity, your love, your compassion towards each other.
Speaker 8: I also want to turn to your amazing career, Billy.
Speaker 8: Your career has been a masterclass breaking barriers and living authentically.
Speaker 8: What drives you to keep using your voice to create
Speaker 8: such substantive change as you do.
Speaker 1: Artists have the power to reach inside of a human
Speaker 1: being and transform them from the inside out. Art has
Speaker 1: the power to heal all kinds of traumas. My soul
Speaker 1: was saved because.
Speaker 2: Of the art.
Speaker 1: If I didn't have the arts, I don't think I
Speaker 1: would be alive right now.
Speaker 2: Maybe, And I know.
Speaker 1: That when I'm at my lowest, for as long as
Speaker 1: I can remember, it's my art that gets me out of.
Speaker 2: Bed in the morning, and there was also growing up.
Speaker 1: No representation, really, no mainstream crossover rotator representation of somebody.
Speaker 2: Who looked like me, who stood at that intersection of blackness,
Speaker 2: queerness and spirituality, and the ones who did were ignored, dismissed,
Speaker 2: passed over, erased. And so I know how I know
Speaker 2: what it felt like to be invisible for over half
Speaker 2: my life. And the only reason why I'm not invisible
Speaker 2: is because I chose myself. I chose my authenticity.
Speaker 1: I to have the audacity to actually choose myself, choose
Speaker 1: my authenticity and then stand on that.
Speaker 5: Did you do that deliberately or do you think that
Speaker 5: choice was made for you?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No, Because for the first part of my life and
Speaker 1: my career, I was trying to fit in so I
Speaker 1: could eat. I wasn't lying, you know, but it was
Speaker 1: the don't ask, don't tell era of the world, and
Speaker 1: so I wasn't telling. I wasn't lying, but I wasn't telling,
Speaker 1: and the omission of not telling is ultimately a lie,
Speaker 1: and that binds you as well, you know.
Speaker 2: And so I had the gift of failing.
Speaker 1: At somebody else, and particularly in the music industry in
Speaker 1: the nineties, and I just vow to myself that I
Speaker 1: would never show up as somebody else again, and whatever
Speaker 1: that meant for my life and career is whatever it means.
Speaker 1: And I still say that today. You know, I grew
Speaker 1: up in a family who believed you got to stand
Speaker 1: for something or you'll fall for anything. So even right now,
Speaker 1: you know with how you look at me, with how
Speaker 1: you see me, which I think is so humbling and
Speaker 1: so inspiring and exactly my point right to exist inside
Speaker 1: of the truth and to have the audacity to be
Speaker 1: authentic and to speak truth always, no matter how uncomfortable
Speaker 1: it may be to some of the people around you.
Speaker 1: Sometimes is great, and sometimes it's that so great, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes there are consequences that come with that, as you know.
Speaker 2: So I'm grateful that my work.
Speaker 1: And my efforts and my intentions are being seen and
Speaker 1: experienced once again in the spirit in which I am
Speaker 1: sharing them.
Speaker 8: Billy, We're all so glad that you've chosen that authenticity,
Speaker 8: and I just want to say thank you for your eloquence.
Speaker 8: Mary Martin went to want to ask you a quick
Speaker 8: question about a moment that Billy's love and support made
Speaker 8: a difference in your life.
Speaker 5: Oh, his love.
Speaker 7: What people don't know is just how kind, like really
Speaker 7: genuinely kind Billy is. And about fourteen years ago, I
Speaker 7: had a medical scare where I had to have brain
Speaker 7: surgery and I was going to be down for the
Speaker 7: count for at least six weeks and Billy was working
Speaker 7: on a show in New York and the show ended
Speaker 7: on a Sunday. He got in the car on Monday,
Speaker 7: drove home to Pittsburgh. I had surgery on a Tuesday.
Speaker 7: And then he stayed with me for six weeks and
Speaker 7: he took excellent care of me. So he's a great caregiver.
Speaker 7: He's a good chef too. People don't know that he liked.
Speaker 1: That's the thing that I would say.
Speaker 2: You know, Covid Lockdown really showed me.
Speaker 1: That cooking is something that soothes me, okay, and something
Speaker 1: that's really healing to me.
Speaker 2: And it's a love language for me.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not like a big gift giver and
Speaker 1: I'm not like I'm not like that, but I love
Speaker 1: to show love through cooking. And if I cook for you,
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: I don't cook for I don't generally cook for people
Speaker 1: who I don't like or care about.
Speaker 5: Do you have a specialty he just likes to cook
Speaker 5: just anything, huh, anything anything, And he can take anything
Speaker 5: that you know, remnants to stuff that's in the refrigerator
Speaker 5: and he'll come up with something and it bangs. That's
Speaker 5: how I know, Mary Martha, that's a good cook. That's
Speaker 5: always my my test. I can, like, I can follow
Speaker 5: a great recipe, you know, or something that's been passed down,
Speaker 5: and I think I'm a.
Speaker 4: Pretty good cook.
Speaker 1: Yes you are.
Speaker 5: My sisters, they go into me a true like like
Speaker 5: they can go into the refrigerator and then they can
Speaker 5: and see what's there and then make a recipe and
Speaker 5: then make it taste good. That That always is my
Speaker 5: benchmark for Yeah, I see there you go and okay,
Speaker 5: then you use that that passes That passed the test.
Speaker 4: We'd love it if you shared this episode of the
Speaker 4: My Legacy podcast with someone you admire, someone who shows up,
Speaker 4: who cares deeply, who lives their legacy every day. We'll
Speaker 4: be back in a moment.
Speaker 5: Now, back to My Legacy.
Speaker 6: Reilly, which which of your projects has had the greatest
Speaker 6: impact on your personal growth and perspective as an artist.
Speaker 2: There's not one, but I will say there's a trilogy.
Speaker 1: The first is Tony Kushner's Angels in America, which do
Speaker 1: you know that.
Speaker 5: Piece of course, mm hmm.
Speaker 2: So that was the first time.
Speaker 1: You know, Jeffrey Wright was the original belize in that
Speaker 1: back in ninety four, and I went to see that
Speaker 1: on Broadway by myself, and that was a transformative moment
Speaker 1: because I didn't understand what I was missing, you know,
Speaker 1: speaking of representation again, you know, I didn't know that
Speaker 1: I was missing seeing a black queer character who was
Speaker 1: not the butt of the joke, who was not the
Speaker 1: one to be reviled or murdered, but who was the
Speaker 1: moral depth and heart of this piece that was very
Speaker 1: dark and very heavy and very political, and you know,
Speaker 1: with a bunch of white people swirling around him, he
Speaker 1: was the one that held it all together emotionally and spiritually.
Speaker 1: And so that changed everything because up in so then
Speaker 1: my trajectory was not what I wanted it to be.
Speaker 1: And then Kinky Boots, which was the original dream coming true,
Speaker 1: you know, the creation of an iconic character in the canon.
Speaker 2: Of the Broadway musical that was me, that was developed.
Speaker 1: And written around my skill set that I won the
Speaker 1: Tony and Grammy for.
Speaker 2: That was you know, and inside of that.
Speaker 1: You know, my character, who's a drag queen, drag artist,
Speaker 1: you know, has a very not great relationship with his father,
Speaker 1: and he actively forgives him in the story. And my
Speaker 1: relationship with both of my fathers was tenuous at best,
Speaker 1: and I had a lot of forgiving to do. And
Speaker 1: so the act of forgiving, even a fictional character eight
Speaker 1: shows a week for three years, is powerful because our
Speaker 1: bodies actually don't know the difference. That's the hard part
Speaker 1: about being an actor and a performer. Our bodies don't
Speaker 1: know the difference when we're faking it, but our bodies,
Speaker 1: in our nervous system still thinks it's the same, and
Speaker 1: we have to do the work to sort of untangle
Speaker 1: that emotionally and spiritually for ourselves.
Speaker 2: The third piece is pose.
Speaker 1: Because the character of Pray tell the community that it's
Speaker 1: dealing with the timeframe that it exists in.
Speaker 2: All of those things.
Speaker 1: Are part of what it feels like as an artist
Speaker 1: to be in the center of your purpose, calling and ministry.
Speaker 1: Those three pieces were a culmination of really really hard
Speaker 1: and focused work and choices that I had made for
Speaker 1: two decades, you know, to get there.
Speaker 2: You know, I walked away from the status quo.
Speaker 1: I took the road less traveled because I knew that
Speaker 1: if I was going to continue down the trajectory that
Speaker 1: I was on, I would.
Speaker 2: Never be happy.
Speaker 5: And it's so interesting because with that comes a lot
Speaker 5: of I mean there, you know, there's a reason why
Speaker 5: the road less traveled can be lonely sometime. So you know,
Speaker 5: from the end, it seems like, oh, this is, you know,
Speaker 5: such a it's a lot of celebrations, but what people
Speaker 5: don't really see and understand is all the sacrifices. I
Speaker 5: think that goals into that not only when you're doing it,
Speaker 5: but I'm sure you know even now. And one of
Speaker 5: the things that I've been so curious about is that
Speaker 5: you've been a shining beacon for so many young people
Speaker 5: struggling right to embrace who they are. But being one
Speaker 5: of the first black queer men to live, I mean
Speaker 5: just so boldly and particularly in the spotlight, I know
Speaker 5: it comes with intense pressure. All we know about the
Speaker 5: pressure that people don't see. Can you can you just
Speaker 5: share an experience or what that has been like for you.
Speaker 2: I want to tell the truth, yep.
Speaker 1: And I've been trying to find ways to tell my
Speaker 1: truth with an eye towards the compassionate and the positive.
Speaker 1: You know, the most difficult thing for me is being
Speaker 1: put out by your own You know, I'm already black,
Speaker 1: I'm a man, I'm black first. But for some reason,
Speaker 1: inside of this queer conversation, this queerness conversation, in this
Speaker 1: intersection with the black community, it.
Speaker 2: Says, if queerness.
Speaker 1: Doesn't exist, it is a very we have a very
Speaker 1: homophobic community, and we've grown, and I want to say
Speaker 1: that too, we've grown. There has been movement, and I'm
Speaker 1: grateful for that because I've seen it, because I'm inside
Speaker 1: of it, so I've seen it and.
Speaker 2: I am grateful for that.
Speaker 1: But I find that that is the hardest thing for
Speaker 1: me on a consistent basis, even with the growth, I'm
Speaker 1: hit in the face with it at times when I've
Speaker 1: let my guard down. Nobody's perfect, nobody does everything right.
Speaker 1: You know, we're not going to agree with everybody on everything.
Speaker 1: But for me, I've been in this long enough to
Speaker 1: know what the motivation is for real, and the motivation
Speaker 1: is that I am a black faggot.
Speaker 2: And I use the word on purpose.
Speaker 1: Because that's how violent these responses are to me simply
Speaker 1: being myself. Right, I'm in a sparkly caftan on the
Speaker 1: front row. I'm embarrassing to the black community, not everybody.
Speaker 1: Let me be clear, how dare I have the audacity
Speaker 1: to be on the front row, out loud, proud in address.
Speaker 2: How dare I?
Speaker 5: Is it more anger or hurt? I don't know, No
Speaker 5: for you, like when you yes for you, because yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: it's both.
Speaker 1: It's all of the above, you know, because I'm out
Speaker 1: here trying to help everybody.
Speaker 2: I'm black first, y'all.
Speaker 1: Whether y'all want to acknowledge that or not, people see
Speaker 1: me as black first babies, you know, even with the
Speaker 1: queer community. I've had to start going to things and
Speaker 1: being like, y'all know, I'm black first, though, right, I
Speaker 1: stand at this intersection, but I'm black first, and clearly.
Speaker 2: I have to remind you all of that. So I'm
Speaker 2: gonna start.
Speaker 5: Reminding y'all, well, Mary Martha is a black woman, because
Speaker 5: that's you know, we talk about that a lot, you know,
Speaker 5: you know, being black and being a woman and kind
Speaker 5: of all that that that that that brings. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 5: all of it.
Speaker 7: I'm black first, woman second, and people, but people put
Speaker 7: it together black woman and that that has its own,
Speaker 7: its own.
Speaker 2: Context.
Speaker 7: For some people, it's not. It's not separate. But I'm
Speaker 7: at a lot of intersections myself.
Speaker 4: Mary Martha, Can I ask you a question? And I
Speaker 4: asked this gingerly and let me acknowledge the fact that
Speaker 4: I'm not black, and so I asked this seeking to
Speaker 4: listen and learn. You have witnessed your brother go through
Speaker 4: challenges but also be a hero for so many in
Speaker 4: black community, but just in the community large. When when
Speaker 4: you look at him, you have seen him at the
Speaker 4: most challenged points of his life, and you've seen in
Speaker 4: the most extraordinary points of his life. What are you
Speaker 4: most proud of? As his sister who knows him on
Speaker 4: an intimate and a personal level in a way that
Speaker 4: we never will. But you have seen the struggles, and
Speaker 4: you've seen the triumphs.
Speaker 7: Yes, well, the high the highs, and this business can
Speaker 7: be high and the lows can be really low. And
Speaker 7: what I'm most proud of is how he continues to
Speaker 7: get up every day and to show up.
Speaker 2: For his life.
Speaker 7: That's what I'm most proud of because that is something
Speaker 7: that I strive for. I can look to him and
Speaker 7: I say, he gets up every day and he is
Speaker 7: showing up for his life. I too can get up
Speaker 7: every day and show up for my life. It doesn't
Speaker 7: matter what people say, even though you know you're human
Speaker 7: and so yes, sometimes the things that people that people
Speaker 7: may say or miscategorize you as of course, that's going
Speaker 7: to bother you. But he keeps getting up and moving
Speaker 7: through it. And that's what's very inspiring.
Speaker 5: Did that kind of help you when you were talking
Speaker 5: about having brain surgery? And oh yeah, like it was
Speaker 5: that also something that helped you.
Speaker 4: Get in through that?
Speaker 7: Absolutely absolutely. And that and our mother, our mom was
Speaker 7: born with a neurological condition very similar to cerebral palsy,
Speaker 7: and she got up every day and showed up for
Speaker 7: her life. And so that was also the blueprint for
Speaker 7: the both of us so that we can continue to
Speaker 7: be the people that we are today.
Speaker 6: Billy, your life's work has been about creating change through art.
Speaker 6: What's one piece of advice you'd give someone looking to
Speaker 6: make a difference in their own unique way.
Speaker 2: My advice would be that you have to.
Speaker 1: Understand who you are, understand what the calling and the
Speaker 1: purpose is, and just get up and put one foot
Speaker 1: in front of the other and do it. Every day,
Speaker 1: tell the truth, you know, and like I said, the
Speaker 1: truth is not always easy. You know, as we've seen
Speaker 1: over the last decade, the truth is under attack. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't want to hear the truth.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't want the truth because the
Speaker 1: truth can be horrifying sometimes and the truth will set
Speaker 1: you for you and a lot of people don't want
Speaker 1: to be set free.
Speaker 2: They say they do, but they don't want it.
Speaker 1: That was what was so interesting about trauma therapy, you know,
Speaker 1: because trauma therapy is about the truth and I want
Speaker 1: to and I want to be set free.
Speaker 2: And then you start the process and you're.
Speaker 5: Like, oh, there's some days you don't want to go back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in some days that the truth is not you know,
Speaker 1: not today, not today.
Speaker 4: To Billy and to Mary Martha, thank you for bringing
Speaker 4: just this beautiful energy between the two of you. For
Speaker 4: those who are listening, I love how often you were
Speaker 4: holding each other's hands and leaning into each other's shoulders
Speaker 4: and just being there as siblings in this incredible way.
Speaker 4: And you know, through this episode, I love how much
Speaker 4: you've spoken about that unwavering family support that you've provided
Speaker 4: for each other. The you know, seeing you get teared
Speaker 4: up and you're talking about your mother, you know, the
Speaker 4: courage to break barriers that she did in her own life.
Speaker 4: And I'm left with these three you know reflections. One
Speaker 4: this importance of self compassion. I love Billy how you
Speaker 4: talked about setting boundaries, about setting boundaries relationship, setting boundaries
Speaker 4: for yourself, and it starts with self putting the oxygen
Speaker 4: mask on first. Second, I love that you talked about
Speaker 4: forgiveness and even finding ways to forgive individuals in unconventional ways,
Speaker 4: as you said, the body doesn't know the difference when
Speaker 4: you were there eight times a week for multiple years
Speaker 4: forgiving as an actor, but forgiving the father figure and
Speaker 4: what that meant for you and to be free in
Speaker 4: that way. But I got to say, the single greatest
Speaker 4: takeaway was authenticity, Like just you've lived your life with authenticity.
Speaker 4: I love when you said you don't mind failing as
Speaker 4: long as you're not failing as somebody else. And I
Speaker 4: love the line You've got to choose yourself, like my god,
Speaker 4: I wish everyone and it doesn't matter what your artist
Speaker 4: passion purpose like, just got to choose yourself whatever it
Speaker 4: ends up being. And so I love that you took
Speaker 4: time to share that with us, but mostly I love
Speaker 4: that you lived it. You proved it through your life
Speaker 4: like that's how you've living your legacy, and in this
Speaker 4: beautiful conversation, the two of you together showing us this
Speaker 4: path to a more fulfilled life. We are grateful to
Speaker 4: both of you.
Speaker 2: We're grateful to you. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us for this best of episode of
Speaker 3: My Legacy with Billy Porter and Mary Martha Ford. A
Speaker 3: powerful way to kick off Pride Month. If you want
Speaker 3: to hear the full conversation, head to the My Legacy
Speaker 3: playlist wherever you get your podcasts, and stay tuned. We'll
Speaker 3: be sharing more highlights from our favorite episodes every Tuesday
Speaker 3: through the end of July. Don't forget to subscribe so
Speaker 3: you never miss an episode.