Ruby Guest: Who Is Jamie Lee Curtis’s Transgender Daughter?
Ruby Guest is the adopted daughter of Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest. She came out as transgender
Ruby Guest is the daughter of Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband Christopher Guest. But before Ruby became Ruby, she was known as Thomas Guest, the couple’s adopted son.
Although Ruby is much more comfortable talking about her transition now, it wasn’t easy for her to come out to her parents. Let’s find out just who Ruby Guest is and if her parents are with her on her journey.
RUBY GUEST WAS ADOPTED IN 1996
Before Ruby Guest (on the left in the above picture) came into their lives, Jamie Lee and Christopher had another child. Annie Guest (on the right) was adopted by Jamie Lee and Christopher shortly after her birth in 1986.
Curtis and Guest chose the adoption route after Curtis had experienced infertility problems right after she married Guest in 1984.
“Adoption was the only way for us to have a family,” Curtis explained In Pact’s Point of View Newsletter. “People who adopt who are fertile have a more difficult decision than when you have no other option. It becomes the viable option for you. If you want to be a family, that’s how you’re going to be it. I don’t think you feel like a family until the child is born.”
It took almost ten years, but Curtis and Guest decided to adopt again. This time it was their son, Thomas. As Curtis explains, Thomas coming into their lives was not a planned event, but one that was destined to happen.
“With Annie, I had sought her out. I have no idea how our son came to us. It’s been a year and a month. I would have said no to any more children because Annie was nine… But a set of circumstances occurred, all of which were celestial.”
“It was serendipitous and involved a friend of mine who died last year [this interview was done in 1997]. Five or six events came together, all of which resulted in our family growing within four days. WE HAD A BABY! I witnessed my son’s birth. I was able to participate, cut his cord, be the first person to hold him. He was home sleeping next to me the next day. I thought, I have very thoroughly lived a life. The birth of my son changed me.”
RUBY GUEST WAS 16 WHEN SHE FIRST REALIZED SHE WAS TRANSGENDER
Ruby sat down with her mother, Jamie Lee, and the two of them spoke to PEOPLE about Ruby’s transition and when Ruby Guest was able to admit to herself that she was Ruby.
“When I was about 16, a friend of mine who is trans asked me what my gender was,” Ruby Guest explained. “I told them, “Well, I’m male.” After, I’d dwell on the thought. I knew I was — maybe not Ruby per se, but I knew I was different. But I had a negative experience in therapy, so I didn’t come out [as trans] immediately when I probably should have.”
Ruby Guest then took another seven years, still calling herself Tom, before she told her then fiancé, Kynthia, that she was probably trans. Her fiancé welcomed that declaration with open arms. It was a little different when Ruby was finally able to tell her parents.
RUBY GUEST CAME OUT TO JAMIE LEE CURTIS IN A TEXT
Ruby’s biggest challenge was still ahead of her. She was finally going to come out to her parents and even had it set up to where she was visiting them at their Los Angeles home. But when she got there, she realized she couldn’t do it and left.
“It was scary — just the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know,” Ruby Guest said via Today. “It was intimidating — but I wasn’t worried. They had been so accepting of me my entire life.”
Still, Ruby Guest left the house, only to send Jamie Lee a coming-out text. Once Jamie Lee received the text, she immediately called Ruby. She said there were definitely “tears involved” and while it was a surprise, there had been signs.
Before Ruby Guest came out, she was using the word bisexual to describe herself. Ruby says she would constantly choose female avatars for any of the video games she would play. Although accepting of Ruby’s transition, Jamie Lee says it has been a learning process, especially when calling her Ruby instead of Tom.
“When Ruby just said her dead name [in the PEOPLE interview] — I haven’t ever heard her say that name. It so doesn’t fit anymore,” Curtis explained. “That was, of course, the hardest thing. Just the regularity of the word. The name that you’d given a child. That you’ve been saying their whole life. And so, of course, at first that was the challenge. Then the pronoun. My husband and I still slip occasionally.”
Curtis also explained how she saw the differences in sexual orientation and gender identity. “I knew Ruby had had a boyfriend. I knew that Ruby had used the word bi. But gender identity and sexual orientation — those are two separate things. And I knew that Ruby played female avatars in video games. But when you ask, “Did you have an inkling that Ruby was trans?” I would say no. But when I replayed Ruby’s life, I went, ‘Hmm, that, that, those, hmm.’”
Ruby also says that she had tried to keep her personal life as private as possible, something that can be difficult when your mother is Scream Queen and Halloween vet Jamie Lee Curtis, and your father is also very well known in many Hollywood circles with This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, and Waiting for Guffman under his belt. Now, though, Ruby is happy to have come out and is willing to talk to anyone who is willing to listen to her experiences.
“No one knows anything about me, and I’ve tried my best until now to keep it that way. But I’m happy to talk about my experiences now. Is it helpful to come out? Yeah. Like, people will still remember me for who I was, but I haven’t changed that. They finally get to see who I’ve always been, you know, inside, but now I finally get to show it on the outside.”
THREATS HAVE BEEN MADE AGAINST HER LIFE
As with many who have come out as transgender, the path has not been easy and, in fact, it has been fraught with death threats. Jamie Lee spoke about the struggles Ruby Guest has been facing since coming out as transgender. It isn’t only what she sees being said to her daughter, but the trans community in general.
“There are real threats,” she said to Cadena SER, a Spanish publication. “I have a trans daughter. There are threats against her life, just her existence as a human being. There are people that want to annihilate her, and people like her.”
So, Jamie Lee is using her platform as a Scream Queen to speak out against transphobia. She jumped into the third person when she told Cadena SER, “Jamie Lee Curtis has a voice, and she’s trying to use it, and you should too,” she said.
“And that’s how we change things is we think about them, we learn about them, and then we use our voices to bring attention to them and to fight against them.”
SHE IS MARRIED
On May 29, 2022, Ruby Guest, who is a computer gaming editor, married her fiancé, Kynthia, in a backyard wedding. What made the ceremony extra special is that Jamie Lee officiated it. She told AARP The Magazine about both Ruby’s transition and engagement.
“[Chris and I] have watched in wonder and pride as our son became our daughter Ruby,” she shared. Right after, she shared more happy news, “[Ruby] and her fiancé will get married next year at a wedding that I will officiate.”
The wedding was not your normal one, which should be no surprise as Ruby is massively into video games. This one had a cosplay theme to it that also had Jamie Lee dressed up as Jaina Proudmoore, a sorceress from World of Warcraft. Ruby decided to dress up as the Skullgirls character, Squigly, while Kynthia chose to dress as Elphelt Valentine from Guilty Gear.
Jamie Lee says that she is still learning. She knows more mistakes will be made as she is ever the student, but Ruby has been and continues to be patient. “I’m a grateful student,” Jamie Lee said to PEOPLE. “I’m learning so much from Ruby. The conversation is ongoing. But I want to know: How can I do this better?”
