Nate Berkus still remembers one moment that brought him to tears as he prepared to become a first-time dad.
Berkus and his husband, fellow HGTV host and designer Jeremiah Brent, share a daughter, Poppy, 8, and a son, Oskar, 5.
Before Poppy was born, Berkus, 51, says he stood in his daughter’s nursery and contemplated how their lives were about to change.
“You and I were standing in front of this little closet and you opened the door and the light went on automatically and I’ll never forget it,” he told his husband as he appeared on the first episode of Brent’s new podcast, “Ideas of Order.”
“There was a crib set up and there were little dresses hanging there, and it was the start of our life as we know it,” Berkus continued. “It was such a poignant moment and I burst into tears. And everyone knows I’m not a crier.”
Brent, 38, agreed that this moment was “so significant” to them both.
“You’re standing there, and (it’s) like the physical manifestation of a dream that has come true,” he said. “I think the idea that we always wanted to have a family but, how is that even possible?
“Before that, I didn’t think I was ever going to be married. I didn’t think I was ever going to find love,” he added. “I was like, ‘I’m going to be alone with some dogs. I’m going to have a great life, a great sofa, and I’ll be fine. What else do I need?’”
Brent also reflected on how having a husband and children was not something he could have even conceived of growing up.
“I didn’t think it was even an option. I didn’t think that it was possible. I mean, at the time, gay marriage wasn’t legal or recognized or common,” he said. “Even surrogacy didn’t exist when I was 13 years old in anything that’s recognizable to how it exists today.”
Brent, who married Berkus in 2014, also said that welcoming each of their children really drove home to him and Berkus how much social progress has been made over the past generation.
"As we stood in the rooms with the surrogates when they were born, we looked at each other and we knew that it was the convergence of social change, climate, political change, science and opportunity,” he said.
"All those things had to lock into place and all these people had to fight for that opportunity for families like ours to even exist," he added.
Berkus and Brent recently teamed up for the second season of their HGTV home renovation show, “The Nate and Jeremiah Home Project.”