Fran Drescher and Her Gay Ex-Husband Are Still Best Friends After 45+ Years

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Post-marital friendships are a trending thing now. Grace and Frankie give a quirky snippet into life within this realm of relationships. There’s an old adage about being friends with your ex and how you shouldn’t do it, but what if the break-up wasn’t personal, or a discrepancy? What if their sexual preference just changed? What would you do? Could you remain friends with them? Well, this exact thing happened to Fran Drescher, beloved star of the CBS TV series, The Nanny. Here’s how she handled it.

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Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson met in high school when they were 15 years old. They quickly became close: first best friends, then lovers. You know the saying about lovers from friends. A few years after they finished high school, they married in 1978. They both attended and later dropped out of Queens University and they soon started working together on The Nanny. Fran, as we all know, was the star. What you might not know is that her then-husband Peter wrote, directed, and produced the show.

Fran Drescher in The Nanny

In 1996, they announced their separation, and by 1999, they were officially divorced after which Peter came out as gay. The couple did not speak in the interim, but Peter initiated contact a year later upon hearing Fran was diagnosed with uterine cancer. From there, they slowly started rebuilding a relationship.

By 2011, they were working together on another TV show. The sitcom was loosely based on their own relationship and set in a home similar to the one they shared in Los Angeles. The show was called Happily Divorced and ran for two seasons on TV Land. They worked as co-executive producers on the show and played the lead characters. The premise followed a woman and her gay ex-husband living together in the same house, which thankfully, was not something they actually encountered.

Post-Happily Divorced, the two have remained close friends – at times referring to themselves as best friends, even. Their friendship survived the divorce of a twenty-year marriage and now, they spend time like old friends by going to movies, catching a meal, or discussing projects.

A New Friendship

This might contribute to the whispers of the possibility of a reboot for their first show. While The Nanny show did seem to wrap up pretty tightly with the two main characters getting married and moving from New York to California, the show continues to live on. “The Nanny Reunion: A Nosh to Remember”, a special filmed five years after the show ended, is proof of the show’s continued relevance.

With the growing anticipation for reboots and considering other CBS shows, such as Murphy Brown, have had their own, it could be a real possibility for The Nanny. The production may even explore the possibility of Broadway.

And seeing how Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson have nearly achieved the impossible, anything could happen with this duo that reminds us of the importance of growing old with those you love, no matter what that looks like.

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