Viewers first met fashion icon Jenna Lyons in Episode 1 of the Real Housewives of New York Season 14. The former J. Crew President and Executive Creative Director appeared single and ready to mingle. But apparently, she’s already dating someone.
Jenna, mom to 16-year-old son Beckett (whom she shares custody of with his dad), is the New York franchise’s first openly gay “housewife.” So, who is Jenna Lyons’ girlfriend?
Who is Real Housewives of New York star Jenna Lyons dating?
Jenna Lyons is currently dating Cass Bird. Cass is a photographer whose work has been in exhibits both domestically and abroad.
Jenna has quite the dating history. She and artist Vincent Mazeau (Beckett’s father) started seeing each other in 1996. They married in 2002 and divorced in 2011. Despite the divorce, the fashion executive and her ex continued to live together in their Brooklyn brownstone for the sake of their young son.
Following her divorce, Jenna dated jewelry designer Courtney Crangi, though they split in 2017. As she told the other Housewives in Episode 2, in 2011 the New York Post “outed” the fashion designer as a gay woman. Sadly, exposing a person’s private and personal information without their consent is pretty typical of the Post and other tabloids.
Outed without her consent
Jenna has said that being publicly outed was a traumatic experience. The right to come out to her loved ones, on her own terms, was stolen from her.
“It was so hard and … I hadn’t really been in the public eye that much,” the former executive told the hosts of The View. “It was all still new for me, and I didn’t expect anyone to care what I was doing in my personal life and all of a sudden everyone cared.”
“It was shocking to me,” Jenna went on. “I was also not sure what the hell I was doing. It was all so new. I mean, I wasn’t [officially out] in any way, but I remember … the Post was calling our PR team, and they said, ‘We’re going to run this story, would you like to confirm or deny?’”
“I just said, ‘Confirm,’ and it was like an out-of-body experience.”
A role model to the gay community
Since that time, though, Jenna has embraced her sexuality and is now proud to be a role model to younger people within the LGBTQ community. She stresses how important it is to have representation of different types of people.
“When I was at J. Crew … I had a lot of young kids coming to me and their parents thought that they weren’t going to be successful,” Jenna added. “They were like, ‘My mom is so relieved to see someone successful who’s openly gay’ … They thought that it was going to limit them, or they wouldn’t be happy, they couldn’t find success in [their] career or happiness in love, and those things just aren’t true.”
As a parent herself, Jenna understands. “You want the best for your kids,” she said. “You want them to have everything, and you don’t want them to have any limitations … [being gay] can be seen as a limitation … Why I don’t know — the sex is amazing!”
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF JENNA SO FAR? DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING MORE OF HER ON RHONY?
