Who Is Billy Porter's Husband, Adam Smith? Here's Everything We Know

You may have seen Billy Porter as the fabulous Fairy Godmother in Amazon Prime’s remake of Cinderella, but by the looks of his real-life romance, Cinderella isn’t the only one living a fairytale.

Allow us to introduce Billy Porter’s husband, Adam Smith, who has popped up several times on the actor’s social feed and appeared at plenty of his red carpet events. Although their relationship has been public for years, we’re curious to learn a bit more about the handsome man who stole Porter’s heart. What does he do? And how did he and Porter first meet? Keep reading for all the details.

Smith is a successful businessman who co-owns an eyewear brand called Native Ken. Per the official website, it's a “New York-based eyewear company that couples innovative design with optical expertise and wellness.”

Also, according to his LinkedIn page, Smith has a pretty strong background in sales. In addition to Native Ken, he previously worked at Jil Sander, Chanel and Marchon Eyewear, where he increased sales annually by nearly 50 percent (!!).

As it turns out, Smith came pretty close to pursuing the same field as his husband. He attended the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied theater and graduated with a BFA in 2003. His LinkedIn also reveals that he briefly studied at NYU.

While speaking with People in 2017, Porter revealed that they met through mutual friends at a dinner party in 2009. At the time, Smith had just moved to New York from Los Angeles, and from the moment Porter first saw Smith, he decided to make his move.

He told People, “I was cruisin’ him as he walked up the street, and he stopped, and he was with us! I was like, ‘Oh, well, I’ll be sittin’ next to this handsome specimen tonight!'”

Smith also recalled, “We kind of were enamored with each other from the beginning,” adding that he found out later that their seating arrangement wasn’t by accident. Well played, Porter.

After their instant connection, the couple quickly bonded after their first meeting and started dating before they split up in 2010. Porter told People, “We were both sorting things out. The first time we were dating, we were just, like, ‘hanging out,’ and all of a sudden, we realized, ‘Oh, it’s been seven months; that’s more than just hanging out!’ But because we weren’t conscious of it, it kind of imploded.”

Though they remained on friendly terms, Porter described Smith as “the one that got away.” He said, “I remember saying to my therapist, ‘Now I know what love looks like, and it just walked out the door.’ I didn’t know what it looked like before, and it was after that that I realized: ‘Oh, s***, that’s the one that got away! But now that I know what it looks like, the next time it shows up, I will be ready.’”

Unbeknownst to Porter, Smith shared the same sentiment about their breakup. He revealed to People, “It had been marinating within me, my love for him and figuring it out and coming to terms with it, over the years. So I knew that it was on me if I wanted to ever change anything, I would have to be the first one to approach the subject; so I was trying to figure out the right time to do it.”

That time came while Porter was celebrating his 46th birthday. After the two enjoyed a showing of Hamilton, Smith opened up to Porter on their way to dinner. The actor recalled, “I felt it, and the tears came, and I pulled over, and he 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,'” Porter remembers. “He was the one that got away—so it wasn’t hard. The yes came easy and immediately!”

Now that he’d rekindled his flame with the one who nearly got away, Porter was not about to make the same mistake again. So towards the end of September, only a few weeks after their reunion, the Pose star began to plan his proposal.

He said, “I was beginning to ask friends who were in relationships, like, ‘How should I do it? Should I do it here, should I do it there?’ And they were like, ‘You need to create a story to tell; Adam is going to want a story to tell!'”

Sure enough, that’s exactly what Porter did. On December 29, during a double date with close friends, he surprised Smith with the most romantic proposal.

“I secretly set it up in London,” Porter explained. “We went to a restaurant that was on the 42nd floor overlooking the skyline. The plan was we’d eat dinner, I would go to the bathroom, I would come back and propose, and then dessert would come. Dessert ended up coming too quickly, but I had planted the seed with [our friends] earlier in the evening, when I asked them to tell their story about how they met; they did, for me to be able to then tell our story and, at the end of it, I said, ‘And with that…’ and I pulled out the Cartier ring!”

Yep, you heard us. As for why the couple wanted to say “I do” so quickly, it was because they wanted to exercise their legal right to get married before former president Donald Trump was sworn into office in 2016.

Smith said, “We were discussing, and Billy had actually brought up to me that it’s important for us to get married while [Barack] Obama is still president and before January 20. So we sat down and figured out when we could make it work before the 20th.”

“This is an extension of our activist side," Porter added. "It’s still important to show the world what our love looks like; it’s important for us to take that stand. I think about when I grew up and when I came out in the ’80s: As a black gay man, there were no examples to validate my existence. So I vowed at that age to try to be that for the generations behind me if I had the chance.”