Kal Penn Is Engaged To His Boyfriend Of Eleven Years
Fans of the celebrity memoir know it takes an awful lot to legitimately surprise the reader with genuine shock. And of all people, stoner comedy star-turned-TV doctor-turned-unlikely White House employee Kal Penn was able to do it with his recent book, You Can’t Be Serious. Kal got serious about his personal life and revealed that not only is he gay, but that he’s currently engaged to his partner of eleven years, Josh.
I’m always thrown for a loop when a private-ish person drops a huge private life bomb on us all, like the fact that they’ve been dating someone for more than a whole decade, and that now they’re in the process of picking centerpieces and doing cake tastings. To be fair, I guess I let that “I Love Bush” sweatshirt do all the heavy lifting when it came to Kal Penn’s personal life. Which is my bad for confusing a person with the charming weed enthusiast they play in the movies! But the reality is, while Kumar of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle might have settled down with that giant bag of weed from his dreams, Kal Penn will be settling down with Josh. Kal isn’t sharing Josh’s last name because Josh isn’t a famous person and both of them would like to keep things that way. via People magazine:
“I’ve always been very public with everybody I’ve personally interacted with. Whether it’s somebody that I meet at a bar, if Josh and I are out or we’re talking to friends,” Penn says. “I’m really excited to share our relationship with readers. But Josh, my partner, my parents, and my brother, four people who I’m closest to in the family, are fairly quiet. They don’t love attention and shy away from the limelight.”
The Designated Survivor star says he wanted to be transparent and truthful in his book, without compromising the privacy of his loved ones.
Kal says he met Josh while working in Washington, D.C. Kal famously quit his full-time gig on House to go work at Barack Obama’s White House in April 2009, after being offered the position of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs (he quit less than a year after Donald Trump was elected). And Kal and Josh’s first date involved bro-ing out on a couch, watching NASCAR. How those two crazy kids made it to Date #2 was an act of some other-worldly force.
Penn details his first date with Josh and being shocked that his future partner a) arrived at his apartment with an 18-pack of Coors Light and b) instantly switched the TV to watch NASCAR.
“I thought, ‘This obviously is not going to work out,” he recalls. “I have one day off from The White House and this dude is unironically watching cars go around and make left turns? Next thing you know, it’s been a couple months and we’re watching NASCAR every Sunday. I’m like, ‘What is happening?'”
While Josh might not love attention, he and Kal haven’t exactly been hiding things. For example, there are lots of pictures of the two of them watching basketball together.
Kal Penn Reveals He's Engaged to Fiancé Josh and Details Their First Date in New Book https://t.co/UrdMVLxMMk
— People (@people) October 31, 2021
As for officially coming out at the age of 44, he tells People: “I discovered my own sexuality relatively late in life compared to many other people. There’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure their shit out at different times in their lives, so I’m glad I did when I did.” People can have a-ha moments at any time in their life. Actually, I wonder if that’s something he’s brought up with his soon-to-be husband. “You know, there’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure their shit out at different times. Like, maybe one Sunday you’ll wake up, and, I don’t know – maybe you decide you don’t want to watch NASCAR? Just putting it out there!”
Pic: Wenn.com/FayesVision