Let's Catch Up with Sam Leicht & Jared Reinfeldt
The new husbands tell us about their wedding day, dreams for the future, and their favorite thing about each other.
Hello everyone, and happy Friday. How has your week been? We are coming off fall break for the kids, which was TEN days long (but maybe even felt longer). During the break, we went to the beach house for a bit, but spent the majority of it at the farm as a family, and it was so good. Peaceful, relaxing, and just what we needed.
I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge all the horror that is happening in the world. I know with everything going on right now, it feels heavy and heartbreaking, and writing and sending out this newsletter might feel frivolous compared to the very real war that is happening as we speak. But if any part of this newsletter sparks even a little glimmer of joy, then it’s succeeded in what it’s meant to do. If you don’t feel up to reading it because of everything going on, I completely understand, and it will be here when you’re ready. I don’t know a lot about the situation, so I don’t feel comfortable speaking too much on it from an authoritative standpoint, but I am educating myself and taking the time to learn, and as a father, my heart aches for all the children on both sides who are paying the highest price. We’re sending so much love to everyone affected by this war and our hearts are with all those who are suffering because of it.
On a personal note, we celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary this past week. Hmmm. Celebrated is a generous word. More like…acknowledged. We were slammed with deadlines and meetings all day, and had plans to go out to eat that night, but we found ourselves working until 10p, finally putting everything away for enough time to finish the show we’re watching (more on that below). It just wasn’t meant to be. Is this what 8 years of marriage looks like?! Surely not, because we technically spent all day together, just not in the way we had originally planned. But we will make the time up soon! One thing we did do: As we hopped into bed to call it a night, we took turns sharing the 8 things we love most about each other. And it, too, was just what we needed.
This week’s issue features our very first interview on the newsletter! For context, one Friday each month will feature an interview with fellow bloggers, influencers, and content creators, and will be reserved for paid subscribers only. We will have two free issues a month and two paid ones. Please feel free to choose whichever plan works for you, but just know, we’re happy to have you here either way!
If you have been with us for a while, this interview newsletter is similar to (okay, exactly the same as) a series we had on our blog called Feature Friday where we profiled a different person every Friday and learned about their life, background, coming out story, and more. It was such a bright spot for us, learning so much about people from all over the world and we became so inspired by their stories that we wanted to bring that series back in some capacity, and so here it is on Okay McKay.
We hope you enjoy today’s interview with Sam Leicht and Jared Reinfeldt, husbands who live in New York City and inspire us with how much they have going on: Running PrideFit, acting in TV shows like Gossip Girl and American Horror Story, and navigating life as newlyweds. We loved learning more about them, and we think you will, too:
On coming out:
Jared: I was a junior in college when I started openly going on dates with boys. I was in Boston at the time, and it didn’t feel like this huge shift—my college community was open and accepting. I was still exploring and it didn’t feel necessary to me to have “the talk” with family and far-away-friends right away. Once I started dating a boy who I really wanted to take home to Nashville to meet the fam, I was ready and happy to have that conversation. I feel fortunate to have an accepting family–some of them were certainly surprised, but they were mostly just excited to meet whoever I was spending time with.
Sam: You know, I was always a very curious kid and we’ll leave it at that. But I officially came out at my graduation party after high school. I told all my girlfriends and two of my sisters who were in town. All things considered, I had a pretty easy time with it - assisted by the fact that I was dating a 28 year old at the time who I thought I was madly in love with and who made me feel confident in my decision to come out. Everyone took it very well, although my mom would’ve preferred I come out to her the same time I came out to my sisters. She doesn’t like feeling left out, and of course my sisters told her that night.
