Fran Drescher Says Her Gay Ex-Husband Is a 'Bit of C---block' (Exclusive)
- - Fran Drescher Says Her Gay Ex-Husband Is a 'Bit of C---block' (Exclusive)
Gillian TellingJanuary 20, 2026 at 7:29 AM
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Fran Drescher tells PEOPLE she and her ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, who publicly came out as gay in 1999 when they split, are closer than ever
The actress says their dynamic can sometimes interfere with her dating life due to the fact that they're so tight
She says they are "soulmates" who "had to figure out how to be happily divorced"
Fran Drescher has no regrets about her current single status. "It takes a lot of work!" she tells PEOPLE of being in a relationship.
"Selfishly, I don’t want to compromise. That's a lot of what it is when you're with somebody...but the more you live on your own, the less you want to do that, and the less you need it if you happen to have a gay ex-husband."
Drescher is referring to Peter Marc Jacobson, the man she met at 15, married in 1978 when she was 21, and divorced in 1999, when their show The Nanny (which they co-created) went off the air. Jacobson came out publicly as gay at the same time, and though it took a year or so to rekindle a friendship post-divorce, they're now closer than ever.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson in 1995.
"I can have friends with benefits. That's easy," Drescher, 68, continues of dating men.
"But because I have Peter, I think he's a bit of a c---block. I take him to everything, and I don't really care. I have a gay ex-husband — live with it! But I've been with him since I was 15. Who can compete with that? And over the years, he grew tremendously. He's not the same person. Neither one of us are who we were when we were married."
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She says that she and Jacobsen not only still write together and hang out together, but they also travel together.
"But we are soulmates. So soulmates really can't ever [split]...they're like magnets, and we just had to figure out how to be happily divorced, and we so are. We travel together now, and my family is his family and it's great. I mean, we feel very blessed that we cherish each other the way we do."
Drescher also reflects on marriage in general, and the pressure that comes along with it.
Michael Schwartz
Fran Drescher on the cover of PEOPLE.
"I'm a Buddhist or a Bu-Jew, if you want to call it that. I'm always trying to think, how can I take this experience and grow through it to be better than I was before? So when you look at it through that portal, then it's like... You're not supposed to be married to everybody just because you love them, and you learn that the hard way very often."
She says she learned that your partner can't be in charge of your own happiness.
"We put a lot on our mate that we don't so much put on our friends," she says. "So sometimes, that feeling that you had way back in the beginning, that got all messed up in a marriage that probably shouldn't have been, you can kind of rekindle that if you just pare it down to much simpler expectations. And we're good with that."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
