Professional wrestler Frederick Rosser, better known to fans of WWE as Darren Young, was the first openly gay member of the WWE roster. There have been other known gay wrestlers in the past, including WWE Hall of Fame member Pat Patterson, but nobody had publicly come out while actively wrestling for the company before. Young changed all that during an off-the-cuff interview with TMZ in 2013.
In a world where gay people had previously been portrayed with negative stereotypes, there was some concern about what the reaction would be, but the company and his fellow wrestlers were broadly supportive. Two years after Young came out, he and his 'Prime Time Players' tag team partner Titus O'Neill won the WWE Tag Team Championships. Young suffered a serious arm injury in January 2017 and was released from his contract in November of that year. He's yet to reappear with any major wrestling promotion.
Chefs made their way into celebrity land a while ago. But how many celebrities that weren’t trained as professional cooks are actually whizzes in the kitchen? Here are several that come to mind.
Actress Julia Roberts is confident about her cooking skills. “I’m quite a good cook,” she told E! News. “I’m like a closet home ec teacher…I can really cook anything.” Roberts has said she often cooks fish for herself and her kids. And speaking of her three children, “They think that I’m a good cook,” Roberts told People. “They actually told me that I should open a restaurant.” She also relishes cooking for the holidays, particularly shredded Brussel sprouts. Roberts hasn’t published a cookbook, but we did find recipes attributed to her for peach crisp and banana hemp muffins. Or you can make the same summer salad the actress supposedly eats.
Chrissy Teigen started off as a supermodel. Then her love of cooking filtered into her professional life too. At this point, she’s created recipes for a limited Blue Apron release and also just launched her own home and cooking line at Target named “Cravings,” after the two cookbooks she’s released. Teigen describes cooking as “a time of peace” for herself. So maybe peace out to her tuna melt sandwich or the fried chicken wings that are a favorite of her husband, John Legend.
Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, comes from a cooking Italian family. Her father started his own restaurant in New York and also published a cookbook. And apparently, Lady Gaga has inherited the family’s cooking genes. Her Instagram account occasionally features photos of her culinary activities. Sure, sometimes it’s topless cooking. But other times it’s more poignant like in the post she shared about her bringing food to the family of her dear friend who passed away. Want to try a Gaga/Germanotta family favorite? Check out her recipe for whole wheat pasta with a sweet fennel sauce.