The couple has developed a comedic shorthand over the years, which is apparent as they tell their love story from their sun-soaked New York City apartment.
“We were always friends,” Jay, 39, tells PEOPLE in this week’s Pride Issue of their on-and-off relationship. “And I think over time, just being connected to one another and not being able to break that connection, a person just becomes family to you. So even when we weren’t necessarily dating, I always felt she was a person who was going to always be in my life.”
She and Monét, 37, met through mutual friends in Atlanta over a decade ago. The host ofPAUSE with Sam Jay, HBO’s new late-nighttalk show, recounts how they met briefly at a club, before their friend’s car broke down in front of Monét’s house later that night. “I was digging her,” Jay recalls.
“And then we would just hang out a bunch and that’s kind of how it started,” she says. “It was off and on for years, dating and then breaking up, talking and not necessarily fully dating, while we were dating other people.”
Courtesy Sam Jay
“We have a lot of fun. We laugh a lot,” Jay adds. “She’s definitely super funny to me, and we both have a good sense of humor about ourselves, so we’re able to joke with one another.”
In her Netflix special3 In the Morning, which premiered last August, Jay jokes about a recent flight they took, during which Monét expected her to carry all the bags. “She forgets, I’m not a man. … I don’t have any chivalry, I don’t give a f—,” she quips in the special.
The lovable teasing is just as present offstage. “We argue a lot and wipe boogies on each other,” Jay jokes. “It’s very immature, but I think we also take care of one another. She prays for me a lot. That’s a big showing of love, and she sages me a lot. So I take that as an action of love, for sure. And I pay for stuff.”
Although Jay had to deal with the loss of both parents and a stepparent at a young age, she and Monét have built their own chosen family over the years. “I think life kind of put me in a situation where I had to lean on friends and people more than normal,” she reflects.
“After my mom passed and I kind of drifted away from my family, I had to find that connection with people through going to Atlanta for school or coming out,” she says. “And so now my definition of family is truly more based on the individual connection than it is necessarily a bloodline.”
PAUSE with Sam Jayis streaming on HBO Max.
source: people.com
