Sorry for what'll inevitably be too long of a post, but I've just been thinking about something and I need to write it down to get it out of my head. I'm also super caffeinated and procrastinating work so here we go
So there's a very popular US left-wing political podcast I regularly listen to, and one of the hosts (jon l*vett) is engaged to a prominent US journalist (r*nan f*rrow)... and lately I can't stop noticing similarities between their relationship and Deppy. They're both a mlm couple who's been together for almost a decade (they even started dating around the same time), and like Deppy this couple got together when they were both on the verge of being public figures but not like,
famous yet. At the start they'd post low-key coupley pictures and flirt over twitter
just like Deppy, but once becoming more well-known they deleted a lot of past social media posts and kept their relationship ambiguous. b/c of this, like deppy the media narrative assumed friendship, like how in a NYT profile on r*nan they were described as best friends who "appeared at political fetes" together (there was a Vice article in 2013 trying to out r*nan using his relationship to jon as part of it, but tbh that just reminds me of the way some youtubers used Deppy's close relationship as content gossip). Similar Deppy, for years jon and r*nan exclusively attended public events together, publicly threw each other birthday parties, lightheartedly interact on twitter occasionally in the same casual way D&P currently do, etc. but it was a glass closet-esque relationship. They confirmed their relationship in 2019 while r*nan was on his book tour, and since then they actually mention each other in interviews and stuff (previously jon would occasionally refer to r*nan as an unnamed 'golf buddy,' but now he actually uses his name).
ANYWAY recently r*nan mentioned in an interview that despite personally wanting to create something professionally together, jon's resistant because he feels quote:
"for our relationship do we want that, to be out there professionally in the spotlight, what effect would that have on our relationship." To hear that outloud really explains how they navigate their relationship despite working in overlapping fields. A handful of times they've done a segment or interview on jon's less serious podcast or r*nan will talk off-camera while jon livestreams something (very dan-esque disembodied voice haha) but that's pretty much it. They even had r*nan collaborate with a smaller podcasting company to create a miniseries despite jon literally owning one of the largest podcasting companies out there. This is all despite how, like Dan and Phil, their dynamic when appearing together is always
incredibly well received; considering their extensive connections in the entertainment industry they could 100% successfully capitalize off a collaboration--anything from doing a simple podcast to hosting an hbo docuseries they could easily get greenlit.
So, Jon and R*nan's approach to their professional/personal dynamic seems to be what Dan and Phil are retroactively aiming for. While Deppy own a company together and have an entire backlog of joint content, now that they're publicly out they seem to care more about preserving their personal romantic happiness rather than advancing a career as a duo... and let's be honest, more content together would easily generate more money and popularity than individual content at this point.
Seeing both couples choose their relationship over easy monetization, even if the risk to their relationship's small considering both seem to have solid foundations, is really interesting. It also suggests that if Dan and Phil make some significant joint content ever again it'll likely mean it's something they really believe in and find important to do together, which is a nice thought
Another note is the obvious one: they're both in same-sex relationships while being very career-focused. Being in a public same-sex relationship in the early to mid 2010s would have very likely stalled their career, whether in entertainment, politics, or journalism, and the urge to hide the personal for the career is something a lot of LGBTQ people face. And being out
while publicly being in a same-sex relationship would be an even bigger liability (for lack of a better word). Even jon, who has always been out, has spoken about dissonance he faced writing speeches for an administration yet to support something as simple as anti-discrimination laws and same-sex marriage. Off-Topic:
anywho, choosing the professional over being out is such a big thing to come to terms with, keeping a HUGE part of your life secret in fear of damaging your career, and I wonder (specifically for Phil) how difficult it was for him knowing in the beginning the stability of his career's contingent on keeping hidden a sexuality he's already comfortable with. Phil's always been great at keeping his public image very contained, especially in comparison to Dan, but I wonder how much of that was a learned necessity rather than something he's always been fine with. Like many LGBTQ ppl, it's interesting to consider their desire to keep the personal life private in order to protect professional potential. personal:
TLDR after all this rambling I guess it all boils down to the extra variables people in same-sex relationships have to consider when in the public eye compared to everyone else. It's like these two couples are case studies in how same-sex couples navigate fame: jon and r*nan were together ~8 years before confirming their relationship, and Dan and Phil have been together even longer... most cishet only wait a few months before publically dating, and that's if they're responsible... like, when jon and r*nan first started dating, jon's bff and coworker dated a number of celebrities, yet those relationships were publicly known because he never had to worry about any of the above-mentioned stuff.
This is all of course things LGBTQ ppl deal with regardless of job or whatever, and both couples have stacks on stacks of privileges most of us could only dream of, but it's just that there aren't too many examples of famous long term same-sex couples so I guess I found it interesting to note how similarly both couples navigated their relationship as public figures, even if both pairs are only famous in their respective industries (Deppy youtube and jon/r*nan US politics and news).
(also fun note: theres so many weird surface level similarities between this couple and Deppy: they're millennials, all huge nerds, play video games together/host game nights, did long distance for various lengths of time, and my favorite,
met through twitter where one slid into the other's mentions with a thirst tweet. They even have the same age gap which is just such a weird detail
).
IDK what my point even was anymore... also oh no this is too long I'm sorry 
