In the August/September 2021 issue of AARP Magazine, Jamie Lee Curtis revealed that her youngest child, whom she had with filmmaker Christopher Guest, is a transgender woman. Curtis shared the information about her 26-year-old daughter, Ruby, after asking for her permission. The magazine further reported that Ruby plans to get married to her fiance in a wedding next year, which Curtis plans to officiate. Curtis’ youngest daughter works as a game designer, whereas the eldest, 36-year-old Annie, is a dance instructor.
For anyone who has embraced their identity as a trans person, it is always a challenging journey, from coming out to people you love to going through transitioning; but with a supportive circle and loving parents, this can be made easier. For Curtis’ daughter, this was certainly the case with her parents as they were immediately accepting of her new identity.
However, even for parents, this can be a challenging journey as there is more than just seeing your child’s appearance change. In an interview with PEOPLE in October 2021, both Curtis and her daughter Ruby opened up in an interview about how Ruby first came out to them and how things have gone since.
This was the first time that both mother and daughter sat down together and spoke about Ruby’s trans journey, and it is clear from their interactions that Ruby is close to her parents. Both mother and daughter opened up about how Ruby’s transition has affected their family, and Curtis in particular spoke about how she is learning so much from Ruby. And since then, Ruby has joined her mom on the red carpet, showing how beautiful the whole family is.
Ever since actress Curtis made her film debut in the 1978 horror movie “Halloween,” she’s been a well-known leading lady in Hollywood. She’s also Hollywood royalty, with her parents Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood era. Curtis’ career has seen her win a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA, while she’s also been immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The “Halloween” franchise is one of the most beloved in the horror genre, making Curtis a certified scream queen. Along with this, though, Curtis has also shown her strengths as an actress in other genres through a variety of films. Some of her well-known roles include the coming-of-age film “My Girl,” the comedy “Freaky Friday” opposite Lindsay Lohan and the mystery film “Knives Out.”
Curtis has also been on several television series including guest starring on “Columbo” and “Charlie’s Angels.” She also appeared in the series “Operation Petticoat,” which was based on the 1959 film her father was in. Horror fans were also delighted when Curtis was on the satirical horror comedy show “Scream Queens” Curtis’ role earned her two Golden Globe nominations.
On top of her brilliant acting career, Curtis is also an advocate for natural beauty. The Sounds True Instagram page posted a video of Curtis expressing her frustration with the term and instead offered a better outlook on life.
“I am an advocate now for natural beauty because I do feel there has been a genocide of natural beauty,” the actress said. “This word ‘anti-aging’ has to be struck.”
Curtis continued, “I am pro-aging. I want to age with intelligence and grace and dignity and verve and energy. I don’t want to hide from it.”
In March 2022, Curtis shared a photo taken while filming “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” to show what a person’s body should look like without concealing anything.
“In the world, there is an industry — a billion-dollar, trillion-dollar industry — about hiding things. Concealers. Body shapers. Fillers. Procedures. Clothing. Hair accessories. Hair products. Everything to conceal the reality of who we are. And my instruction to everybody was: I want there to be no concealing of anything,” she said.
“I’ve been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight. I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality. That was my goal. I have never felt more free creatively and physically,” she added.
Fortunately, Curtis has a very loving and supportive family who are all very accepting of each other, clearly showing that Curis has been lucky in her private life. The actress is married to director Christopher Guest and together they have two adopted children, Annie and Ruby.
The couple’s romance started over three decades ago when a then-25-year-old Curtis was flipping through Rolling Stone magazine and saw a photo of Guest, which she later wrote about in O Magazine. He was in a feature about his latest movie “This Is Spinal Tap,” and Curtis pointed to his photo and told her friend that she would marry that man.
Well, unfortunately, it wasn’t so easy. The actress made the first move and called Guest’s agent and left her details, but heard nothing back. She told Hello! in 2021:
“I think it’s crucial to put yourself in the path of love. Look, I reached out to his agent. I left my number. He didn’t call me by the way.”
But soon after they ran into each other at a restaurant in LA and things picked up from there. Curtis wrote in O Magazine:
“As I sat down at Hugo’s, I glanced up and found myself staring straight at Chris, three tables away. He waved to me as if to say, ‘I’m the guy you called.’ I waved back: ‘I’m the woman who called you.’ A few minutes later, he got up to leave. Standing 20 feet away, he shrugged his shoulders and put up his hand as if to say, ‘I’ll see ya.’ As he left, I looked down at my plate.”
Thankfully, Guest called her that time and they went on their first date a few days later. Within the next month, they fell in love and he proposed not long after. The couple was married on Dec. 18, 1984, just over four months after their first date. Fast forward almost 40 years later and the Hollywood couple has maintained a relationship among the ups and downs of stardom.
Curtis’ fantastic advice on a long-lasting marriage was imparted during a Today interview in 2015 when she said:
“Don’t get divorced. It’s a fascinating thing. I could write a book on marriage called ‘Don’t Leave.’”
In another interview with Today, she spoke about how important it is to put oneself out there for love and to lean in when opportunities present themselves. She said:
“Our lives do hinge on a couple seconds that we don’t see coming and what we do in those seconds ultimately determines the rest of our lives.”
She mused, “So the truth of the matter is, life hinged for me on a couple seconds that I didn’t see coming.” In an interview with Good Housekeeping, the actress elaborated further on her words of advice:
“Don’t leave. There’s a recovery phrase that says, ‘Stay on the bus, the scenery will change.’ You think you’re having a bad week, but stay on the bus, because one of these days you’ll look out the window and it’ll be beautiful … I’m not a wild romantic. I’m a realist. I respect him. And I just don’t leave.”
Curtis has spoken about being “opposites” to Guest and that they each have different interests, but ultimately their love for one another has gotten them through. She told AARP:
“That’s the long marriage. It’s the safety of knowing his car is in the garage, that I’m not alone, and that he’s here.”
The couple even lovingly has that Rolling Stone photograph hanging in their house, Guest told The Guardian, as an homage to their early days. Curtis wrote in O Magazine:
“Chris and I have a wonderful, complicated, imperfect life. And a very real marriage. I’ll never know why I thought we’d understand each other when I saw his photograph. Hidden in that smirk, I think, was a little secret that only I knew.”
Today, Curtis is watching as her own children’s lives transform, as they find their careers and ways in life. Speaking to her daughter Ruby’s decision to come out as a transgender woman, Curtis told AARP that she understands that gender isn’t fixed, adding that life is a “constant metamorphosis.”
Curtis continued by saying that she and her husband “have watched in wonder and pride as our son became our daughter Ruby.”
“And she and her fiancé will get married next year at a wedding that I will officiate,” Curtis added.
In their PEOPLE interview, both mother and daughter spoke about the time that Ruby first came out. After sitting her parents down and telling them that she had to open up to them about something important, Ruby wasn’t able to actually come out to her parents while sitting down with them. Instead, she texted them about it.
“It was scary — just the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know,” Ruby said. “It was intimidating — but I wasn’t worried. They had been so accepting of me my entire life.”
Curtis recalled, “I called her immediately. Needless to say there were some tears involved.” PEOPLE reported that today, both mother and daughter are more at ease with each other, but it isn’t without a few bumps along the way.
“It’s speaking a new language,” Curtis said. “It’s learning new terminology and words. I am new at it. I am not someone who is pretending to know much about it. And I’m going to blow it, I’m going to make mistakes. I would like to try to avoid making big mistakes.”
Curtis added that as a mother who is learning the ropes of being a mom to Ruby, “You slow your speech down a little. You become a little more mindful about what you’re saying. How you’re saying it. You still mess up, I’ve messed up today twice. We’re human.” She also added, “But if one person reads this, sees a picture of Ruby and me and says, ‘I feel free to say this is who I am,’ then it’s worth it.”
Ruby told PEOPLE that she doesn’t get angry at her parents for any missteps they might make. Curtis chimed in, “I think that’s sort of evolutionary and a very important step in our home. We have tried to maintain it in a big way. I’m learning a lot from Ruby.”
Ruby was also asked if her parents’ fame has had any impact on her own life, and whether it added any pressure for her to come out, “Yeah, no one knows anything about me, and I’ve tried my best until now to keep it that way. But I’m happy to talk about my experiences now.”
Ruby added, “Like, people will still remember me for who I was, but I haven’t changed that. They finally get to see who I’ve always been, you know, inside, but now I finally get to show it on the outside. But me coming out has nothing to do with my mom being famous. I’ve tried to stay out of the spotlight for many years, or at least done my best to. I’m happy to be more visible if it helps others.”
Since Ruby came out as transgender, Curtis has shared how proud she is of her daughter. She told PEOPLE:
“I’m not proselytizing, and I’m not trying to force-feed something to people. I’m simply saying, ‘This is our family’s experience.’ I am here to support Ruby. That is my job. Just as it is to care and love and support her older sister Annie in her journeys. I’m a grateful student. I’m learning so much from Ruby. The conversation is ongoing. But I want to know: How can I do this better?”
Ruby added, “You’ve done the most you can, and that’s all I want. Helping others is something everyone should do. I don’t think it’s only our household thing. It should be a human thing.”
It’s incredibly moving to see Curtis and her family so open and honest about their dynamic together. It’s also wonderful to see them sharing the spotlight and spreading positivity. In October 2022, Curtis’ daughters joined her on the red carpet for the premiere of “Halloween Ends,” and the loving mother made sure to commemorate the occasion.
She went to Instagram to share a heartwarming photo of herself alongside Ruby and Annie with the caption: “My family. Proudest mother. Loving support.”
Many people flooded the comment section to see how beautiful the family looked all together. Not only that, but they also shared how great it was to see Curtis being so supportive of her children and her children being such great role models. We’re excited to see what the future holds for this family.
What do you think about Ruby’s journey as a trans person and her support from her mother? Tell us your thoughts, and be sure to pass this on to your friends as well.
