Michelle Visage spills the tea on her open marriage and how compersion is the key to its longevity
Michelle Visage opened up about her open relationship, and we are taking notes!The 55-year-old ballroom legend and RuPaul's Drag Race judge (and now host of Drag Race Down Under) spoke candidly with British writer and actress Cush Jumbo on her podcast Origins with Cush Jumbo about her love life, and what it means for her and her husband to be in an open relationship.Visage and her husband David Case, an author better known by his pseudonym Jax Spenser, and Visage have two children together and have been married since 1997. While there are many jokes made between Visage and the other Drag Race judges about her presumed promiscuity, Visage must be doing something right to be in a such a happy marriage for 27 years. So what's their secret?See on InstagramWell, it certainly doesn't hurt that they're both breathtakingly gorgeous. He works Drag Cons with me," said Visage, "and he comes to all these things with me, and listen- my husbands quite good looking. So the gay men have let it be known that hes quite good looking."Case also has a knack for celebrating Visage. She continued, saying about Case's feelings towards her many accomplishments, "So he beams with pride. Hes got that thing down. I think you call it compersion."Compersion, while sometimes described as the opposite of jealousy, is I think better explained as the opposite of schadenfreude. Instead of feeling happiness at other's pain or misfortune, you feel happiness at the joy others are experiencing- a sympathetic joy. Many in open relationships, even those who have been nonmonogamous a long time, still work through their own jealousy and envy and are still capable of feeling compersion at the same time. See on InstagramWhile not a requirement for an open relationship by any means, compersion makes things a lot easier. Visage herself even said it's not something she experiences to the extent that Case does, but they make it work through love, honesty, and communication.We live openly, so he would get off knowing that I was so happy, and no matter what it is that I do and Im not just talking sexually, whatever it is," Visage said. "I dont know if I have compersion in me to be really excited if hes doing something with another woman but I know that it exists, and he is 100% that.Cush responded, poignantly adding, "Its like giving you the opportunity to have the space to feel like you never have to hide any piece of yourself.Visage agreed, "And I dont and neither does he."See on InstagramVisage's full episode of Origins can be listened to wherever you get your podcasts.