The couple is featured on the TLC show debuting Thursday, which highlights transgender people's journeys to parenthood.
My Pregnant Husband couple Precious and Myles Brady-Davis are opening up about sharing their love story and intimate pregnancy journey with the world. The pair is one of two couples featured on the TLC show debuting Thursday, which highlights transgender people's journeys to parenthood.
Myles identifies as transmasculine and gave birth to their daughter, Zayn, in December. In an interview with ET's Deidre Behar, Myles and Precious talked about the importance of telling their story.
"Already, going through IVF, there's already not a lot of stories out there," Myles points out. "And then being a transmasculine person, there's really not a lot of stories out there, so I kind of did it for my younger self. And also, a stat coming out of GLAAD, it says that 80 percent of all Americans don't know anyone who's trans. So, also, me and Precious both have the privilege to be seen."
"There's a lot of people in our community that don't have that privilege," he adds. "If they're visible, that could cost them their family, their friends, or even their life. So, like I said, we really wanted to make sure that since we had that privilege, that we're illustrating what trans love looks like."
Of course, the couple also had hesitations.
"Oftentimes when trans stories are told, they often want to talk about our bodies and what we have done to our bodies and this story is about my body and what my body is going through," he notes. "The journey I'm going through. So, it was a little hesitation of hoping that the story would be done tastefully. You know that when you look at the powers that be and who's actually in charge at putting these stories together, there's not a lot of people at the table that share any of my identities often, so that was my only hesitation. But then I kept thinking, you're doing this for your 12-year-old self. This story needs to be told."
Precious said that ultimately, the experience was a positive one.
"Myles and I were very communicative with production, with the production company that we were working with," she shares. "There was a lot of give and take in terms of the way that we wanted our story told and we feel that it adequately, it represents who we are. The thing about it is we had so much fun doing it. After we wrapped our filming, we practically laughed the entire time that we shot it. I think it's just another extension of our relationship."
"This is a beautiful depiction of two trans love stories. Growing family," she continues of the show. "And I feel like we need to see more of that -- that we are nurturers and we are worthy of love."
Myles also talked to ET about the experience of being pregnant and said the entire process was "amazing" and that he hopes to carry another child. As for Precious, she says she enjoyed Myles' pregnancy and had no feelings of resentment that he was the one carrying their child.
"I celebrate the fact that I had a pregnant, trans, masculine husband," she says. "You know, it was our child and it was a part of the experience of creating that new trans reality that we want to live in, so there was never a single day that I ever felt any kind of animosity."
"If anything, I think I dealt with some of the wrath of having a pregnant husband, some of the mood swings," she jokes. "It was a lot of demands. I’m like, 'What are these demands? Like, are you serious?'"
Still, their pregnancy journey wasn't without struggles. During a preview of the show, a doctor is shown telling Myles that his cervix has gotten thin and that he and Precious could lose the pregnancy.
"One of the biggest struggles for me especially when I watch the special was when the doctor was telling me that I have a short cervix," Myles says. "I am a true rainbow baby. Before my mom had me, she lost two children and it was because she had a short cervix. So, talking with my mom about what I was going through and us watching it together, it kind of brought out some of those emotions of, I could have lost this child. And it was our last embryo. So, that was a hard part to re-watch."
Another heartbreaking moment during his pregnancy was when he was arrested because someone thought his baby bump was clothes that he had stolen. Precious and Myles reveal that the day he was arrested was actually the day of their baby shower.
"It was truly, like, one of the scariest moments of my entire life," Myles recalls. "Not only did I have a shopping bag in my hand the entire time, I'm not a shopper. Usually when I go shopping, Precious is with me and she helps me. So, not only did I have a shopping bag the entire time I was in the store, I also had a sales associate that was helping me the entire time because I was telling them how nice I wanted to look for that. And of course, black transmasculine people, oftentimes we have to deal with police brutality, police harassment because often we don't fit into the mold of what they feel a man is supposed to look like, how they're supposed to act. So, we're other. And in this situation in the store, I was other. Somebody mistook a bump -- it could have been a beer belly, it could have been anything -- but a bump under my shirt as clothes so they called the police on me."
"When I exited the store, plainclothes police, they surrounded me and at first I thought I was getting robbed and of course, they were rough. Then they eventually figured out what was going on because a female officer lifted my shirt and they all saw the bump," he continues. "But it's like, growing up as a Black child, I've often had the talk with my parents about how to act when I am in police presence. So, I knew what to do and it was one of those moments when I have to swallow my pride, be rough-housed, be rough-handled, and just pray that me and the baby make it OK. And thankfully we did."
The experience was also devastating for Precious.
"Even when I talk about it, it just brings up just such hostile feelings of that my pregnant transmasculine husband cannot exist in the world safely while being pregnant," she says. "And it gives such a commentary on who we view as worthy of being pregnant in society and navigating safely. You know, when we think about the stereotypical pregnancy, we think of someone glowing and someone ... holding their bump and people moving out of the way in society, showing such respect for cisgender women, but a transmasculine Black man, the respect is not there. You're seen as a predator and it's such a commentary on where we are as a society."
Still, the two didn't let the incident ruin their special day.
"Yeah, the day continued and Myles was resilient and we celebrated with our friends and family," Precious says. "We had a beautiful baby shower, New Orleans-themed because Myles and I go to New Orleans every year. It was a beautiful thing, and it was a beautiful evening after we travailed that mess."
Later, the couple also talked about their decision to let cameras into the delivery room. Myles said there was just one cameraperson present, and that part of the reason he allowed cameras to film the experience was for his own safety and to ensure he got top-notch treatment.
"If you look at the stats of how trans people are treated when they are accessing healthcare, it’s really bad," he notes. "For the majority of my life even, every time I've accessed healthcare, it's been a bad one. It's funny that the first time that I actually received really good healthcare is through IVF. And that was surprising. But yeah, trans people are treated horribly accessing healthcare so I knew, camera crew -- amazing treatment."
These days, the two are loving being parents and also talked about navigating raising Zayn during the coronavirus pandemic.
"We have made the most of it," Precious says. "We are creating a world for her and she doesn't know what's going on outside our four walls. She is laughing and playing and loves Sesame Street, and I'm always singing to her. And she is a lot like Myles. There is a quiet fierceness. But she's like her mom in that she is very vocal. So, it's crazy to see little parts of yourself in a child. I think that's the most surprising thing."
The couple is also making teaching Zayn about diversity a priority.
"That conversation has already started now, of exposing Zayn to other walks of life, you know?" Precious shares. "And so she will understand that we are another kind of diversity. That families come in many shapes, sizes and forms, and that she is a part of that and that it should be celebrated and affirmed. For her, we hope that it'll be something that she is proud of. It's not going to, you know, be made something that is a spectacle."
Of course, they are anticipating a few challenges.
"Myles and I have talked about, as we go to navigate education ... we being possibly the only trans parents in the school," Precious says. "We're going to have to register our child for school in the coming years. And you know, possibly, that might come up later in conversation -- that kind of a disclosure."
However, Myles is hopeful about how Zayn will handle such challenges in the future.
"But also I feel like Zayn will be able to build strength off of our history," he says. "I came out in 1986 at the age of five. I didn't really have any trans role models or even know what trans was because we really weren't using that vocabulary then. But I was able to build strength learning the history of, like, my father. My father was a Black Panther. My mom was one of, like, the Blacks that came up from the South, you know? So, learning their history, I was able to build strength. So, our child will also be able to build strength off our stories, because she'll be able to see that we were able to overcome things. And she'll be able to overcome whatever obstacles or oppression she faces."
My Pregnant Husband premieres on July 23 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on TLC.
In June, ET talked with Laverne Cox about Disclosure -- the Netflix documentary she executive produced -- which examines the history of transgender visibility from the earliest days of cinema to TV's current scripted dramas and how that has evolved over decades.
"Now we have to really unpack our minds and understand the biases we have about who trans people are. Where they come from," Cox said. "We can unlearn them together and we can move forward in a new way."
Watch the video below for more:
