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To prepare for this story, I watched about half Chynna Phillips’ latest YouTube vlog. She opens by walking and talking to the camera, very rapidly, about what’s happening in her life and family. At about 3:40 in she does a baby impression before recounting one of her experiences giving birth. While her baby impression is quite good it kind of sums up her entire personality. I would have a hard time tolerating her socially and find her annoying af, but I’m sure she has fans. (I find many YouTubers annoying, so take that as you will.) She’s also a born again Christian and references Jesus and The Bible frequently.
Chynna, 56, is best known as part of the all female music group Wilson Phillips. She’s been married to Billy Baldwin, 61, since 1995 and they have three adult children, the youngest of whom is 20. Chynna’s latest video diary is making news because she revealed that she’s living separately from Billy, at her suggestion, but that they’re still together. Chynna’s personality aside, I’m sure a lot of women would like to have that arrangement. Here’s part of People’s writeup about this.
“Billy and I are sort of in this new kind of arrangement that is actually really working for me. I don’t know if it’s working for Billster, but I’m really happy with what we’re doing,” she begins, before adding, “Basically, it’s totally unstructured . . . let me explain.”
She continues, “I said to Billy, ‘Look, why don’t we just do a little test run to see what it feels like to have me in Santa Barbara, you in Beverly Hills, and then we flip-flop. Then in between, we have date nights together, we have therapy, we have dinner with the children and we go to the beach or the museum.”
The pair, who married in 1995, share three adult children together: daughters Jameson, 24, and Brooke, 19, and son Vance, 22.
The couple will spend a few days together when she says “we have sleepovers and stuff,” but they’re not “forcing ourselves to be subjected to each other’s energy 24/7.”
While her actor husband “is a bit more reticent about the whole thing,” Chynna notes that he was still willing to try out the new setup.
She later goes into more detail about the arrangement while on a FaceTime call with Billy, 61.
“I think that we’re onto something,” she tells her husband. “I really do, because we enjoy each other’s company. It’s so hard to articulate to people that we’re madly in love, we really enjoy being around one another, we cherish our marriage, we don’t ever want to separate. We just need a little time apart because we are sort of an allergy to one another. And it’s OK. I’m sure lots of different couples are allergies to each other.”
The actor cuts in, “The reality is you have the allergy, I have a certain energy that makes you have a— see, your back just tweaked just now.” He adds, “You do things that, you know, sort of alter my energy sometimes.”
She also tried to reconcile her fundie beliefs with living apart from her husband. She said “where in the Bible does it say that I have to live under the same roof, 24/7 with my husband? Can you please find me that scripture?” She then said she knows The Bible teaches that she has to submit to him, but that “I’ll submit when I’m around.” I mean, this is one way to gain your independence while technically adhering to antiquated Christian teachings that subjugate women. Billy is not religious like Chynna but explained that he goes to church and prays with her. He told her later in the video, on a video chat, that he adores her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her.
Sometimes I think about the 2012 movie, Hope Springs, where Meryl Street and Tommy Lee Jones play a married couple who get their spark back. It’s kind of an older married woman’s fantasy and I remember thinking how unrealistic it was. People don’t change, but you can shift things by mixing it up. It must be nice to have the resources to live in an entirely different house than your spouse. So many rich and famous people do that and talk about how awesome it is. Barring that, I’ve heard that separate bathrooms and an extra bedroom help.
