LadyGang - LG QUICKIE: Jonathan & Jaymes

Episode Date: May 6, 2021

Hollywood power couple and the first gay couple to appear on the cover of The Knot, Jonathan Bennett and Jaymes Vaughan are sharing the secrets to their successful relationship and all of their drama-free wedding plans… It goes without saying, aren’t we all wondering who will be attending the wedding from Mean Girls? Check out our amazing sponsors!!! Hyundai: Learn about the all-new Tucson at Hyundai.com  Brooklinen: Go to Brooklinen.com and use promo code ladygang to get $20 off, with a minimum purchase of $100! Ritual: Get 10% off during your first 3 months at ritual.com/ladygang See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to The Lady Gang. You're about to listen to our podcast, but there is so much more our community has to offer. Follow us at The Lady Gang, join our secret Facebook group, shop our clothing line, books, and find out when we're going to be in your city at theladygang.com. We're so excited you're here. Enjoy the show. This episode of Lady Gang is brought to you by the all-new Hyundai Tucson, the SUV reimagined from the inside out. Learn more at hyundai.com. it's time for a quickie podcast one presents the lady gang the hollywood girl posse with lady gang quickie here's kelty knight becca tobin and jack vanek let's make this quick

our guests today are the first ever gay couple to be featured on the cover of the not magazine it's the summer 2021 issue called pride and joy and it features this horrible looking couple and today we'll be playing bridesmaids bar even though they didn't ask groom number one is returning to lady gang after making us pr pants last time he's an actor model and cultural icon king of the burn book he started mean girls cheaper by the dozen all my children law and order smallville dancing with the stars hit the floor and of course celebrity big brother and most importantly he's been a guest judge on rupaul's drag race my dream groom number two the host of celebrity page tv a former chippendale and star of amazing race he loves singing making money and

bargain shopping don't we all he's also named kelty together they are a hollywood power couple that are taking over and we are so excited for them please welcome to the lady gang jonathan bennett and james vaughn i mean i can die now that was the best introduction i've ever had oh my gosh even better than your last one yes i love it so much you got bargain shopping in there for me how did you know i love a deal is that because of this one um you're saying i'm achieved first of all i do my research and on your amazing race profile james those are the three things it said about you that you love singing making money and bargain shopping wow i didn't even know i had an amazing race profile i feel like they probably asked me that like while

i was suspended from midair in the middle of a bungee jump or something i have something really strange to share right now james your speaking voice i don't know if it's like an ex-boyfriend of mine or an ex crush it is the most sexual thing i've ever heard oh my god but it's not triggering right it's triggering in a good way she's like you're dripping i'm just making sure because kelty said bring the good microphone i can unplug if we need to no it is sexual right wait he's got this he's got the best singing voice like he's got this like country because james used to be a singer for years and vegas and sang in all the shows and just was like i've just belted his face off but he's got this great now he's gotten older he's

got this like great like raspy country voice older when he wrote what you have when he wrote the uh song for me for for our proposal and it's just it's a country song and it's so good got such a good like we love a rasp it's like so sexual yeah yes we are here to talk about your iconic cover so this is a big this is a big deal this is a very big deal look at you i mean it's also the most adorable picture i've ever seen in my life so great and i just was wondering like do you fight over no i'm the most handsome no i'm the most handsome like who is no we agree that i james has a better body i'm more handsome it's like an even thing like oh my god that is fair i think he's more handsome than me but he says the opposite so i'm gonna take it because i'm

an actor and i'm insecure i didn't get enough love in my childhood so i'm gonna go ahead and take it and say that's fine no he's the most handsome he doesn't even have a bad side this is crazy so how did you get approached to be on the cover of the nod did you pitch it like how with the wedding coming up like how did this all come to be well when we got engaged i think my publicist craig schneider publicist of the stars reached out to the knot and said hey this is happening and i and you know they came back to us and asked us if we would want to be uh the first gay couple on the cover of the print issue of the knot and of course we jumped at the chance because i mean it's all about representation and trailblazing and doing first for the community

and you know it's kind of gone gone along in my pattern and what i've decided to do in the past few years which is try and break down the walls and do a lot of firsts like the first uh gay couple in a hallmark movie the first gay kiss in a hallmark movie we have another i have another hallmark movie coming out this year that's going to do another first for the gay community so it's really important for us to you know camera yeah having sex no it's hallmark hallmark so like you're like you're holding hands also he's engaged also i'm not allowed anymore it's engaged um oh and so please laugh at his joke he loves that i liked it i liked it and so you know and so when they approached us we just of course said yes and we're honored and excited and it was just

it was such a thrill to be there and shoot this cover and tell our story because it's so much more than us it's about us it's not about us really it's about the visibility in the community this our cover and like the movies i do and the things that we do it's not about us our wedding's no longer just about us it's about the community and the representation so it's much bigger than just two people yeah it's very important because we always think about all right when i was a kid and i was struggling with who i was and i was going through all the trauma that goes with that what did i need what did i need to see and we didn't have a lot of representation we didn't see a lot of couples in love that were two men or two women or two people of the same sex and so we're like

well what can we do to make sure someone else doesn't have that trauma and so if we can do things like this that are actually really fun to do i mean let's not get past how exciting and fun this is to get to do like what a cool photo shoot but i think about it oh it's so cool my big brother actually went to the bookstore today and sent me a snapchat this morning of him going and seeing the magazine on the rack there in the store that i went to when i was a kid and didn't see anything like that and he was like how cool is this and it's those little moments like that they give you goosebumps and make you realize like this is a john that's so much bigger than us and it's so so cool that we get to do it and get to be a part of it i mean it's definitely and beyond an honor

and to me you know they're not does such a great job and that's why we're the biggest fans of the knot of inclusion and diversity and making sure they represent everyone to the fullest extent that they yeah they did a digital cover like i think it was like 2013 with lance bass and michael and then on their instagram follow them for a while obviously you know we won't be getting married and there's so much diversity and they include so many people on just their instagram and and their website and their website and everywhere i just look at instagram and what's so cool about the cover and that why it's just such a huge deal and a difference is that the cover is what younger jonathan and younger james see when they're standing in line at the grocery

store with their parents waiting to check out it's it's great because they have covered so many lgbt couples throughout their magazine but that cover sitting on the cover is important looking over and they see that right in their face that's what matters you guys when you get the f-bomb hurled at you all the time when you're a kid and you're just like beat down from it and it makes you feel like you're never gonna have happiness and then you look over and you see joy and happiness places i mean that that i just it's so exciting because i just think about like what that would have meant for me i mean both of us we went through that funk yeah big time and it's the craziest most beautiful photo like when i saw it i felt it's like pure joy yeah i felt really emotional for

you like obviously you know we're happy for you because we're friends and you're friends of the podcast and stuff but you know i just felt like i'm so happy they got that joy that you felt this freedom that you felt that it comes across in the photo like i don't really know how to explain it it's probably why you were speechless when you saw it it is it is why why we were speechless and you know i was saying this to james yesterday like to go from being a you know in the closet actor teen heartthrob grown-up who's gay that comes out like there's so many things that i've had to deal with that i in a million years i would never think like the misery i was living in that one day i'm going to be with my fiance on the cover of the biggest wedding magazine in the world

living loudly and proudly if you told me that i would say you're crazy and then here we are and I think in that moment, we knew what we were doing when we did this shoot. And it just kind of exuded from us because we're so excited to be doing it. And by the way, that was my idea. It was? Because of course it was my idea, Kelsey. Like, I'm like, hey, they have us in these suits and we're walking around. And I'm looking over and I'm like, Easton, who's the photographer?

By the way, let's give Easton the credit because Easton captured all of these amazing photos. And every single one was better than the next one. It's better. And I don't know if you got to see the digital issue inside, but the digital issue is available now on issue.com. There's an amazing video in there that they did that's also really, really cool. I just want to show you my favorite photo. I know it's a podcast, so you can't see, but go watch the video version if you're listening

to the audio right now. This picture right here is my favorite picture of us ever in the entire history of the world. Oh my God, that's so sexual. They're kissing. It's black and white, arms around each other. i have a question for you jonathan were you ever um i mean obviously you were afraid but have you been have you noticed a difference in your career since you came out because you were this heartthrob you were this person and as you lean into the hallmark uh gay stories the first gay kiss this

gay cover like i feel like they will always allow a straight person to play gay but do they always let a gay person play straight like is there yeah you know interesting question and i get that one a lot and i don't know the answer to be honest because my career is so random and bizarre like i don't think i know anyone else in hollywood that does the things i do like oh you do a book you do dancing celebrity big brother now you're hosting dancing is a loose term baby and then i mean whatever tommy chong beat me it's fine um so he wasn't even in the room oh very good um you're welcome so you know i get this a lot and i don't know the answer to it because i don't know what my career would be like if i hadn't come out but what i can say is that i

am happy that i came out and i'm happy that i'm able to live loudly and proudly i do think it affects some of my roles but also affects my roles for the better in some way so do i think hollywood is is do i think it's true to say oh you can just come out and be whoever you are and it's not going to affect any of your roles in 2021 everyone's accepting everyone cares that's completely a lie and i know i know we want to say it because it sounds good but it's not true it's still going to affect because it's just how the world is still there are little things it's not going to affect it greatly but there is some effect on things and um which is why we keep doing little things to make change exactly it doesn't have that effect

down the road for future generations exactly and you know i think and because the people that are casting and the people that live in that have run hollywood for years you know there's still a lot of people that are from a different mindset and different school of thought right because they come from a different era just era and so i think as new generations come i think it will change things um but you know i don't think i'm happy and i think i've gotten a lot of roles because i've come out that are fantastic so i'm happy and you know i really wentworth miller said something interesting he goes i'm no longer interested in playing straight roles i only want to play gay roles because he said those stories have been told yeah those are the those stories have been

told and i want to tell the new stories and i think there was some power to that i'm not saying that's what I want. But I think there's something interesting there that kind of makes me think about, you know, it's like, that is true. Like there are enough stories that have been told. It's time to tell some new ones. And I'd like to tell them those instead. So. I love that. Proud of you, bud. Um, when we come back, we're going to tell wedding stories. Lady gang got to spend some very special time hanging out with the new Hyundai Tucson. And we can tell you it's a real cute guys. Every inch of the all new Tucson has been completely completely reimagined, resulting in an SUV loaded with available innovations both inside and out.

From design to technology to safety, most importantly, every aspect of the new Tucson has been approved upon. Head on over and learn more at hyundai.com. The SUV has been completely redesigned inside and out. They've got a digital key that allows you to use your phone as a key, so you'll never be, you know, digging in your purse again to find your keys. There's LED daytime running lights. They are hidden. They're invisible when they're not in use. And there's also a 10.25 inch full touch infotainment screen, which is real, real chic, chic, chic. We have so much fun hanging out and we can't wait to share more with you. So head on over and learn more at hyundai.com. That's hyundai.com. So I love this podcast, but right now I really do wish that I

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oh no no no not a groomzilla i have to make the decisions because jonathan either won't make the decisions or he will choose the exact wrong thing that's what it is this wall behind us in the house i built this it took him three days to realize this had happened he doesn't notice stuff like that he doesn't have an eye for detail so i have to make these decisions it's not a groomzilla it's just a someone that's acting it's a groom gay what are your astrological signs yeah what sign are you aries okay gemini okay yeah very he's very much a gemini i don't know a lot about signs but i know the ricky and he's in love with both of us he is yes he is very much like a gemini all the time

um what like i guess there's a lot of anxiety around weddings and getting the families together do you feel that like have your families met are they cool like becca is famous for saying like the worst thing in the world is like when all your friend groups come together and that's essentially what a wedding is so does that freak you out well we have a no drama rule for our wedding so if anybody is going for drama or anything like that they're not getting invited because we're not doing that yeah you just don't care oh you're not coming if you're dramatic you know you have that friend that gets drunk and does stupid things they're not coming now are your dramatic friends are you very close to any of these dramatic some of them yes yeah like we're

honest like hey you're dramatic it's a no drama wedding so we're not going to invite you and you're telling them that's the reason why that's why we're doing our wedding at unico resort resort in mexico it's all inclusive so everybody can come together because our families have never met our families have never met so this will be their chance so they'll get to have like a little vacation before the wedding because we're doing it How have they never met? How have they never met? Virginia, Ohio

My parents are dead His mom's alive My dad's dead So we really have his mom and then my brothers and sisters That's like our family and they both just have their lives with their kids and it's a lot You have sisters I have sister

You guys are next to sister We need to have a talk offline about this he does have extra sisters it's called the lady gang and we'll be there there's three it's so nice to meet all of you flower girls can we get to go to mexico to an all-inclusive yes please we'll do anything so beautiful yeah i read this story where the the place didn't want to marry you yeah but you know what that moment stings and then you're like wait but how do we again make this better for everyone else wait community we decided they had a hotel say no and you're wait and you're can you do a tldr of what that story was i don't know what that means

tldr a little summary what does tldr stand for too long didn't read oh we we went to get we thought we were going to get married at one place and they don't do gay weddings and so that's when we decided to like that this that our wedding was bigger than us yeah that that was seriously a point where we're like oh my gosh like this is so much bigger than us in 2021 someone will still tell you no you can't get married you're like who says no to love but when that happened we're like all right cool what can we do to make this better for our community so we actually launched this entire safe and celebrated campaign where we only want to use vendors and locations and highlight all the elements of the wedding industry that not only we are safe as lgbtq people to go to but we

are also celebrated when we come there like you should be excited when you walk in to get your ring to go propose they should be excited with you there should never be a moment where someone puts the brakes on your excitement so it you know it was a moment that stunk for a second but then we turned it around into a positive and then unico on the other hand you go to their instagram we knew we could go there because there's lgbtq plus couples all over their instagram on their website just naturally there and then even when we went to site visit oh my gosh like it seriously like there's so much diversity there it was beautiful we're like this is the place so it was a thing that happened that actually pointed us in the exact right direction i love this what makes you

the most worried about being married what babe i mean it's i you guys like i don't want to sound like oh whatever but like nothing that's why i asked him to marry me i can't wait to i'm not nervous i'm nervous okay here's what i am nervous about james is very good at everything being perfect like he's a perfectionist everything's like flowers or house he's so good with detail and the only thing that makes me nervous is that at the wedding on the day that like dear god please just let everything come together that's the producer in me that's the producer in james like i want like that that band better be there on their mark and that music better happen when we when we cue it i wrote a song for our wedding right it's got to be right so the only thing

that makes me nervous is like having something going wrong you know your partner and you're like i need to you know help put out fires if if if there's fires happening i want to put them out before he sees them so that way he doesn't have to get i've already decided that we're going to do a rehearsal we're going to make sure you have all the elements there and what happens happens the sky can open up and rain fall down she's gonna make a cuter wedding video anyway and we're just gonna run with it it'll be like you tell yourself that james you tell yourself that as yeah is that not no it's good girl you know it's a good mantra it's a good mantra to have and i appreciate that you're trying but we all know that's not actually what's going to be going on in your brain but nice

try i've come to terms with it it's fine it's gotta be perfect you guys i kind of dreamed of a wedding like my whole life and now i'm getting it so it did it doesn't have to be that but i am going to do my best to just pause and take a moment and if something is is not working correctly just allow a moment for it to adjust itself and then stay in the moment actually you know that happened during the engagement because during the engagement i came outside and he was the song started playing that he wrote for me and it was the first time i'd ever i didn't even know he wrote a song for me you guys the amount of times i had to tell him i was at home goods when i was really at the studio working on this song

but it doesn't matter because he wouldn't have noticed that anything was new in the house anyway i love that your excuse is home goods that's all because it's believable that's where he does that he goes to home the amount of candles and pillows we have in our house it's my therapy it's like it smells great um but when the the music pillows that's what you think i get at home goods then that's what he thinks i get at home good yeah what do you get it isn't that what you get at home goods no you get a purple spatula and they have furniture you're right all right sorry but finish your story that you want to tell anyway i walk outside and the music music doesn't work and he and normally instead of being upset he just goes to stay in the moment

and he turned to turn to my friend tony and was like fix the music and like it paused for a second and we just stayed in the moment and he's like just stay right here just stay right here i was like bawling bawling bawling stay right here stay right here and then the music played and it was all fine so he did do a good but like we're when we go to do our vows with the cameras like we're such we're showbiz kids like we you know you need to razzle dazzle them yeah yeah right but like when they're filming our vows like i'll say my vows and then we know to pause so the cameras can repo and then once they're repoed we'll go on and it's not it's like it's just second nature for us to like feel the cameras and wait to talk so that's okay so we get that wedding video for the

people who weren't invited because they were dramatic to get exactly i love this so much honestly i'm like i'm beyond thrilled for both of you this is so freaking exciting like it really is you know it's it's just it's it's dreamy dreamy dreamy you know it feels like that for us too so thank you i mean i literally feel like i'm exactly where i'm supposed to be at this time it feels like i've always known this is when it was going to happen this is how it was going to happen and i'm here and it's really freaking cool are you guys writing your own vows yep yes are they already i don't know what they're gonna be yet but i'm gonna try to memorize them i feel like last minute he's gonna be like babe can you write mine for me you'd be like okay but i'm at home

yeah 90 of the captions on my instagram are written by james vaughn because he's a better writer than i am maybe i've answered ghost writer yes and then of course you know i i can't let you go without asking the hollywood question um who from the cast of mean girls is going to be at the wedding oh my god oh very good um well is it because it's small right yes it's like 100 people i mean it's like 50 people what was it 100 people not what's going on there will be cast members invited yeah and uh there will be i don't know which ones will show up but there will be definitely be cast members invited okay i love that i'll never forget at becca's wedding when it was like becca tobin gets married and then half the headlines were like ugly reunion i was like

wait the wedding like that's not that's not a headline it was actually someone's wedding day so it's not just like a reunion they didn't go to dinner yeah yeah they'll it'll be there so yeah so maybe don't invite i don't invite anyone from mean girls and then they can't call it a mean girls reunion there you go oh wow that's smart okay sorry you're not invited just kidding just kidding all right well we love you so much you guys can check out the new issue of the knot it is on stands everywhere because it's major um please follow james and jonathan at james v and at jonathan benna obviously already follow him we're so excited for you guys congratulations thanks for coming back to the lady gang and thanks for having us no we weren't

here for a long time but we're here for a good time thanks for listening the lady gang is produced by alex ingber will sterling steve delameter and jared monaco make sure you subscribe rate and review our podcast and if you love it share it with your friends on social media like oh my god i just listened lady gang this episode's a great swipe up to listen and if you really want to which we know you do please follow us on social at kelty at becca at jack vanek and at the lady gang sign up for our newsletter at the lady gang.com and join our secret facebook group it's super fun See you next Tuesday. This episode of Lady Gang was brought to you by the all-new Hyundai Tucson.

The SUV reimagined from the inside out. Learn more at Hyundai.com.