Niecy Nash-Betts shares how she keeps the spark going with partner Jessica Betts!
While walking the red carpet at the 2024 GLAAD Media Awards on Thursday night in Los Angeles, I never did star, 54, told PEOPLE that she and Betts like to spice up their relationship with a little “skinny dipping.”
They also enjoy bubbly. “Champagne,” Betts says when asked how the two — who tied the knot in August 2020 — keep their romance fresh.
At the event at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Nash-Betts also spoke about finding a same-sex partner later in her love journey. Before her relationship with Betts, the actress was only in relationships with men. She was married to Don Nash from 1994 to 2007 and married Jay Tucker in 2011 before they announced their separation in 2019.
See Reneé Rapp, Niecy Nash-Betts, Orville Peck and more LGBTQ+ stars at the 35th GLAAD Awards
Joe Scarnici/Gett
“I guess I just give myself permission to feel what you feel and love who you love, and that’s how I live my life and I’m not ashamed of it. I do it out loud,” she told PEOPLE. “And I just think it was necessary to do it that way, you know what I mean? I mean, I’m basically a showgirl. How can I keep anything secret or in the closet?”
She called her romance with Betts her “favorite relationship I’ve ever been in” and shared that the pair – who first met and became friends in 2015 – enjoy collaborating on projects.
“Every time I can get a chance to work together, I really like it,” she added.
Betts told PEOPLE that she is “incredibly loved” by Nash-Betts, whom she said she affectionately calls “Cora.”
“It’s one of the greatest gifts I could have received from the Almighty, yes,” she added about marriage Newcomer: the feds star.
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Nash-Betts wasn’t joking about the couple’s love of skinny-dipping. When the actress won an Emmy in January — for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie — for her role in Dahmer — The Monster: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer — she toasted the recognition with a celebratory swim with Betts.
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Jessica Betts (left) and Niecy Nash-Betts take a dip in the pool after the 2024 Emmy Awards.
Niecy Nash/Instagram
“Okay folks, as planned, I’m celebrating my Emmy win by going for a skinny dip,” Nash-Betts said in an Instagram shot of herself floating in a pool. “I booked a hotel suite with an indoor pool. Now I’m just waiting for my better half to really start the party.”
“The Bettys are celebrating this Emmy win by taking a skinny dip in an indoor pool and drinking champagne. Tonight was amazing,” she added as Betts joined her in the water.
Niecy Nash Betts’ wife Jessica boasts ‘the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met’ on star’s 54th birthday
Shortly after the couple’s surprise wedding in 2020, Nash-Betts told PEOPLE that her marriage was a “coming in,” not a “coming out.”
“I don’t limit myself to what that love should look like,” she said at the time. “I love who I love.”
“At one point in my life I was married twice and I love those people. I still love this person today,” she continued, referring to Betts. “I did everything I wanted on my terms and in my own way. So my current choice of partner has nothing to do with who I’ve always been. It’s about who I am at this moment.”
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Source: HIS Education