Richard Grenell is an American political advisor who currently serves as the director of National Intelligence. He previously served as the U.S. State Department spokesperson to the United Nations under the George W. Bush administration. In 2012, he served as a foreign policy spokesperson for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
In 2017, President Trump nominated Grenell as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, and after senate approval, he assumed the role. Richard has long been a controversial figure in U.S. politics, and he remained true to his character during his two-year stint as Ambassador to Germany.
This piece will look at Richard’s partner and family. It’s unclear whether he is married, but he is in a relationship.
Richard’s partner Matt Lashey created an app to help Richard keep track of his treatments as he recovered from cancer
Richard and Matt Lashey have been partners for a very long time. Both their worlds came crashing down after Richard was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He started chemotherapy, and in September 2013, he announced that he was in remission.
The side effects of Richard’s aggressive treatment included severe constipation and vomiting. Nevertheless, he continued working at FOX News with the support of the staff, and most crucially, the support of his partner. “Fortunately, the unflinching support I received from my Fox News colleagues and Matt helped me get through this scary and vulnerable time,” Richard told The ASCO Post.
Matt also boosted Richard’s recovery by developing an app that helped Richard track his medications and the side effects caused by each medication. He added:
“With the aid of a phone app Matt developed (chemowave.com), I was able to chart how an antiemetic I was taking caused my severe constipation. A change in medication brought me immediate relief and taught me an invaluable lesson: patients often have choices in the medications they take for their cancer management but are rarely aware of their options.”
Richard was born into a deeply religious Christian family but his parents accepted his sexuality
Richard grew up in a Christian family alongside two brothers and a sister. His parents were missionaries for the Church of God, but they nevertheless accepted Richard’s sexuality. A section profile written about Richard on the Washington Post in 1996 reveals that Richard has a great relationship with his mother.
“Part of what’s wrong with America, says Grenell, is that people don’t care about what their mothers think – a yardstick against which he measures all of his moves. He describes himself as a ‘mama’s boy’ – which may explain his affinity for strong women.”
Richard’s family might have been accepting of his sexuality, but the outside world was much less welcoming. While working at the UN, he tried without success to have his partner listed as a spouse in the personnel directory. In 2012, Mitt Romney faced criticism from a section of Republicans for hiring Richard, a gay man, as his foreign policy spokesman.
In 2013, he supported an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court that supported same-sex marriage. He referred to the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage as a ‘huge win’ that Conservatives should support.