Inside Neil Patrick Harris’ family life with husband David Burtka and twins Harper and Gideon

Neil and David met the old-fashioned way, passing each other on the street, and went on their first date shortly after, in April 2004. It wasn’t until two years later, shortly after season two of How I Met Your Mother started airing, that Neil came out as gay, and it wasn’t until 2007 that he confirmed he was in a relationship, making their red carpet debut at the Tony Awards a few months later.

In August 2010, Neil confirmed that he and David were officially expecting twins, via a surrogate, and the two, Harper Grace and Gideon Scott, arrived in October of that year. The following June, after the legalization of gay marriage in New York City, the two got engaged, and later tied the knot in Italy on September 6, 2014, just shy of a year before same sex marriage was legalized in all 50 states.

David grew up in Michigan, and made his television debut in 2002 with a guest role on Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing. He later worked in theatre, before taking a break from acting and pursuing a full-time culinary career; he graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Pasadena in 2009 and later founded a Los Angeles catering company, Gourmet MD, with a classmate.

Giving insight into the twins’ personalities when they were four years old, David, during an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show, confirmed that Harper takes after him, and Gideon after Neil. “She’s like, ‘Hey everybody, I’m here!'” she said of Harper, adding of Gideon: “He’s a little more heady and intellectual.”

Save for occasional snaps on social media and appearances like the Wicked: For Good premiere, while they are still teenagers in school, Neil and David keep their kids largely out of the public eye.

For several years, Neil and Patrick were famously the owners of an eccentric brownstone in Harlem, at 2036 Fifth Avenue, between 125th and 126th Streets, which they listed in 2021, and per a New York Times article that year, they have since made their 13.5-acre estate in East Hampton their primary residence.