Gus Kenworthy and his boyfriend, Matthew Wilkas, made history at the 2018 Winter Games— but it has nothing to do with sports. Before Kenworthy headed down the slopes on Saturday, February 17, he shared a kiss with his actor love of more than two years. The lip-lock was captured by NBC cameras in PyeongChang, South Korea, making it the first same-sex kiss shown during the Olympics.
“That was like a good morning kiss. I hadn’t seen him since the night before,” Wilkas tells Us Weekly. “We didn’t know we were being filmed.” The 39-year-old added that because he and Kenworthy live in progressive cities like New York and Los Angeles, they were surprised by how much attention it received.
“We weren’t aware of how unusual the act was!” he admits. “And I think we both just hope that two guys kissing at the Olympics won’t be a big news item in the future. But we’re so thrilled to be a part of a movement toward that.”
Kenworthy, 26, shared a similar sentiment on Wednesday. “It’s funny to be hearing people say, ‘The kiss that’s been around around the world,’ because in the moment, it was so casual. It’s just, like, ‘Alright, wish me luck. Kiss.’ And then go out for my run,” the medalist told Us. “It’s just something I do before every competition that Matt is there for. Then I finished the event and all the reporters kept asking me about the kiss and how impactful it was and I didn’t even really think about it. I didn’t even know the cameras were rolling at the time that it happened. But I’m really glad they were there.”
The downhill racer publicly came out in an interview with ESPN in October 2015, and a month later, he and Wilkas began dating after meeting on Instagram.
“We’re great. We work through all of our issues, we talk, we have amazing communication. But it’s also like . . . It’s up and down,” Kenworthy told Us earlier this month. “I spend so much of my time on the road and traveling. We’ll go eight weeks without seeing each other.”
With reporting by Joe Drake
