Photo: Victoria Stevens
Nate Berkus is feeling grateful to have found a “great love” not once, but twice.
The interior designer, 50, and his husband Jeremiah Brent, 37, opened up about their 10-year relationship in PEOPLE’s Love Issue, where Berkus also spoke candidly about the impact his relationship with his late partner, Argentinian photographer Fernando Bengoechea, whodied in the 2004 Sri Lankan tsunami, has had on his and Brent’s marriage.
Speaking about what his husband has taught him about love, Berkus says, “The biggest lesson, for me, is that no matter what I’ve been through — and I’ve been very public about what I’ve survived — I will believe, because [Jeremiah] taught me to believe, that if you do the work on yourself that’s necessary to make yourself available to great love, then it’s possible that great love can come around again.”
Nate Berkus/Instagram. Inset: Gary Gershoff/WireImage.
For Brent, who had never been in a serious relationship before meeting Berkus at 26, their instant bond on their first date in 2012 was a welcome surprise. “I remember thinking to myself, oh God, what is this? This is not what I thought it was,” says Brent. “There was something about him that, in his presence, I just felt so safe.”
For Berkus, it marked an unexpected fresh start.
“My mother said to me, when Jeremiah and I met, ‘The light is back in your eyes,'” Berkus recalls. “And I remember thinking to myself, I know. You’re right. I know.”
Nate Berkus, Jeremiah Brent and kids Poppy and Oskar.Steve Granitz/WireImage
TheOprahalum has often talked about how Bengoechea is a part of his and Brent’s story and evennamed his and Brent’s son Oskar, 3, as a tribute to him. (They also share daughter Poppy, 6.)
“[Fernando’s] middle name was Oskar,” Berkus told PEOPLE exclusively of the poignant inspiration in April 2018 — and what’s more surprising, the tribute “was actually Jeremiah’s idea.”
“We have always honored Fernando’s memory in our relationship. He’s a part of our love story,” explains Brent. “It’s such an important chapter in Nate’s life. So the idea that we can honor his memory in a beautiful way was exciting to us.”
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Berkus famouslyshared the story of the tsunami with Oprah in 2005.
His family released a statement soon after saying, “Based on all of the information we have gathered and the search team’s extraordinary efforts, we still have not heard any word of Fernando. Therefore, it is with great sadness, we are forced to presume Fernando died in the tsunami.”
source: people.com
