Fran Drescher and Her Gay Ex-Husband Are Still Best Friends After 45+ Years

Post-marital friendships are a trending thing of the now. There’s an old adage about being friends with your ex and how you shouldn’t do it, but what if the break-up wasn’t personal, or a discrepancy. What if their sexual preference just changed? What would you do? Could you remain friends with them? Well, this exact thing happened to Fran Drescher, the beloved star of the CBS TV series, The Nanny.

Actress Fran Drescher and ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson met in high school when they were 15. The high school sweethearts became close: first best friends, then lovers. A few years after they finished high school, they married in 1978. They both attended and later dropped out of Queens University and they soon started working together on "The Nanny." Fran, as we all know, was the star. What you might not know is that her then-husband Peter wrote, directed, and produced the show.

In 1996, they announced their separation and by 1999, they were officially divorced after which Peter came out as gay. The couple did not speak in the interim, despite their 21-year marriage, but Peter initiated contact a year later upon hearing Fran was diagnosed with uterine cancer. From there, they slowly started rebuilding a relationship.

By 2011, they were working together on another Hollywood TV show. The sitcom was loosely based on their own relationship and set in a home similar to the one they shared in Los Angeles. The show was called "Happily Divorced" and ran for two seasons on TV Land. They worked as co-executive producers on the show and played the lead characters. The premise followed a woman and her gay ex-husband living together in the same house, which thankfully, was not something they actually encountered.

Post-Happily Divorced, the co-stars have remained close friends – at times referring to themselves as best friends, even. Their friendship survived the divorce of a twenty-year marriage and now, they spend time like old friends by going to movies, catching a meal, or discussing projects.

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