Billy Porter and His Husband, Adam Smith, Have a Love Story Sweeter Than Fiction

Smith is successful in the fashion business already. He’s a co-owner of Native Ken, a New York-based luxury eyewear brand.

Smith’s marriage to Porter is actually his second, after his first marriage ended in divorce.

Although his romance with Porter was very New York-centric, Smith started his education and career in California. He studied at California Institute of the Arts.

While in college, Smith didn’t actually study business or marketing or anything you’d expect a future company owner to do. He was a theater major, graduating with a BFA in 2003.

Smith has two sisters, Adria and Allison. Through their marriages and children, Smith is a proud uncle to nine nieces and nephews.

He’s an owner now, but that wasn’t always the case for Smith. Straight out of college, he declined to pursue his acting career any further, and, according to his LinkedIn, he started a sales career. His first job was with Marchon Eyewear as a sales rep and he won several recognitions for his work there.

Smith is apparently the party planner of the group: he throws birthday parties for Porter and he even planned their wedding! “I should create ‘How to Plan a Fabulous Wedding in Ten Days’ because I had ten days!” Smith joked to Playbill.

Following his stint at Marchon, Smith worked as a sales specialist at Chanel in New York City between 2008 and 2009. From there, he moved on to sales director roles at Jil Sanders and Dita Eyewear until 2016.

According to People, the couple met at a dinner party in 2009 and dated for a while, then broke up. They remained friends, though, and both had lingering feelings that they didn’t address until 2015.

“It had been marinating within me, my love for him and figuring it out and coming to terms with it, over the years,” Smith said. Porter remembers that, after a date to see Hamilton at the Public Theater, “[Smith] said, ‘I love you, and I’ve always loved you, and if there’s any chance, I would like another shot – I would like us to have another shot at this.'”

Smith grew up near Dallas and, like Porter, was raised in a household that wasn’t exactly accepting of his sexual orientation.

“We both grew up in households where who we are is labeled an ‘abomination,'” Porter told People at their wedding. “The thought of marriage, there was no context for it – there was no dreaming about it because there was no context to dream; it was unspoken and very clear that the sanctity of marriage was not for us. So to see that come around, to see that tide turned, it still takes my breath away.”