Anthony Rapp
Anthony Rapp He was in his early 20s when he realized he wanted to be a father – but was convinced it would never happen.
“I thought it would pass me by,” he tells People.
But almost 30 years later, the Star Trek: Discovery The actor is comfortable sitting next to his partner, leadership and life coach Cane Ethifoland their 3 month old son Rae Larson Ethifolat his home in downtown New York City.
“He’s been making more noise lately, just cooing and gossiping,” says Rapp, noting that looking into his son’s eyes is like staring into the ocean. “You just get lost, don’t you? I think so.”
Connected: Anthony Rapp thought a baby ‘just wasn’t going to happen’ before welcoming son with Ken Ethifol
Cane Ethifol
Rai’s birth in December came at an “intense” time for the actor. Less than two months earlier, Rapp, who rose to fame in the mid-1990s, starred in broadway Film Rentlost my civil case against kevin spaceywhom she alleged made unwanted sexual advances towards her when Rapp was 14 years old. (Spacey claimed he did not remember the encounter.)
“To really close the chapter on that and to do so knowing that opinion was coming — to say it was a light at the end of the tunnel is an understatement,” says Rapp, 51.
Now he’s turning his attention to the future, including his new one-man musical Without you and the upcoming final season Star Trek: Discovery: “This is the age of light – and (the trial) is a locked room.”
The door to Baby Rae’s arrival began to open in December 2015, when 37-year-old Ethifool noticed Raph in the making for a music tour. So if And messaged them on Facebook about the show.
“It started out as a very friendly, casual conversation,” Ethifol recalls. “Then once we met, it became a little more flirtatious.” They began dating that January and became engaged in November 2019. In early 2021 they started the surrogacy process.
Connected: Star Trek: DiscoveryAnthony Rapp is engaged to boyfriend Ken Ethiphole: ‘I’m so very happy’
The pandemic, Ethifol says, “really inspired us to take that first step, which really helped us tap into that deep longing for how to do this.”
When Rapp and Ithiphol found Nikki Nicholsen, a nurse and married mother of three children in New Hampshire, they “got a very strong reaction,” Ethifol says. (Nicholasen says she developed an “enduring bond” with the couple, explaining that she was happy to give them “a kind of gift that cannot be replaced”.)
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Adds Rapp, whose mother, Mary Lee Baird, died in 1997: “Both of our late mothers were nurses. Like her, (Nicholson) has a kind of quiet strength.”
Baird died nearly a year after his death Rent Creator Jonathan Larson, Rapp’s close friend and the inspiration behind Rae’s middle name.
Rapp honors both Larson and her mother in his one-man Off-Broadway show Without you — which is based on his 2006 memoir — and says that spending time with the memory of his mother has had an impact on his parenting.
Rapp says, “I’m very mindful that she’s not going to meet him.” “At the same time, I’m channeling her as well. Her spirit is super present. Bittersweet isn’t a strong enough word.”
Connected: Anthony Rapp reflects on his mother’s ‘life-changing’ death Rent Producer Jonathan Larson
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Baby Rae Ethifool would say Dad or Daddy, the couple would explain, and Rap would be called Papa. (“We practiced that with our pets first — seriously — just to get used to its vernacular,” Rapp says.)
The couple hasn’t ruled out expanding their family again, but for now they are enjoying the early days with their newborn.
Rapp is especially enjoying reading to his son. Rapp says, “I don’t know how much he’s processing yet, but I’m really looking forward to hearing from him what he gets from the books.”
Adds Ethiphool with a sweet smile: “I hope he enjoys singing too.”
For more on Anthony Rapp and his baby Joy, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
