Kevin McHale Gushes About Boyfriend Austin P. McKenzie — but Has 'No Desire' for Marriage or Kids
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Kevin McHale recently took to the catwalk on RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race, but he won't be walking down the aisle or into a nursery any time soon — the Glee actor exclusively tells PEOPLE wedding bells and baby rattles aren't in his and boyfriend Austin P. McKenzie's future.
"I honestly have no desire to get married or have kids," says McHale, 34, who's been in a relationship with McKenzie, 29, for nearly six years,. "Every now and again, it seeps in. Everyone's getting married around us and I'd be like, 'Oh, that would be fun....' And maybe we would one day. But we're just in such a good place, it's kind of like, if it ain't broke — I don't really see the point for myself."
"I'll think about being a dad too. Like, you entertain that fantasy. And then I go hang out with somebody's kid and I'm like, 'Ugh, never mind,' " he jokes. "Don't get me wrong, I love being an uncle. I've been an uncle since I was 11 and I'm a pseudo-uncle to all my friends' kids. Kids are magical, I just like to sleep! To bring a child into this world, you've got to be really committed to that in a way that I am not."
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Instead, McHale says he's focused on another milestone in his relationship with McKenzie — moving into together.
"We don't even live together yet," McHale adds. "He's over my place six days a week anyway, so we basically live together, but he's moving in in a few months. So we're really going at our own pace. I just feel so good about where he and I are and so settled with that, that I'm not really concerned about trying to do anything other than what feels right and good. And right now, what we're doing feels right and good."
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That doesn't mean that McHale sometimes doesn't feel the pressure of the timeline people often place on career and relationships.
"Sometimes you lose that battle," McHale tells PEOPLE, when asked how he avoids falling victim to the crowd. "Sometimes you just have to ride the wave of, 'Today I'm going to torture myself and compare myself to everyone I've ever met, even other actors who would never play the same parts as me.' But then you snap out of that because you realize there's room for everyone to be successful and no one's experience exactly your experiences and no one's going to be on your timeline. So whether it comes to career or relationships, it's just important to constantly remind yourself that, 'Okay, I'm running my own race and there's room for everyone.'"
McHale says McKenzie is on the same page — though he does note his boyfriend loves to push the line (and his buttons) when it comes to the subject of children.
"The other day he was like, 'Wouldn't it be cute if you had a little kid coming in, jumping on the bed to wake you up?' And I'm like, 'Absolutely not. That is my nightmare,' " McHale recalls with a laugh. "He does it every now and then just to test me."
"We both have dogs," McHale adds. "That's enough."
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McKenzie is an acclaimed actor and singer in his own right with roles in Speech & Debate, When We Rise and Broadway's Spring Awakening. His third album, Somewhere in Space, is out now.
"He is so talented," McHale gushes to PEOPLE. "He's much more talented than me in every way and sometimes he doesn't know how good he is — which I understand because of any of us in this weird entertainment world, you are constantly auditioning and it can feel very thankless. So I'm just his biggest fan and his biggest cheerleader. He is such a sensitive, sweet soul in all the best ways and I want him to be so successful at whatever he wants to be successful at. And it's so nice to be with somebody who goes through the same things I do and is just as there for me as I am for him."
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That support especially came in handy when McHale competed on RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race, as the drag persona Chic-Fi-Lay.
"He literally coached me through Drag Race," McHale says. "He's obsessed with the show, so I'd go home and rehearse numbers in front of him and talk things out. He's be like, 'I think you should do this look here, or this thing there.' And when I was having a meltdown about Snatch Game, he was literally writing jokes for me. I only made it as far as I did because he coached me."
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McHale made it all the way to the top 4 on RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race, a feat considering he'd never done drag before.
"It terrified me a bit," McHale admits when first asked about doing the show. "I went in thinking it would be fun and difficult, but a good challenge. And ultimately, something got unleashed and it was this beautiful, magical celebration of queerness. I just had the best time."
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He also learned a lot about himself, something he wasn't expecting. "It really, really was the most wonderful, liberating experience," McHale says. "I don't know if anybody went into this thinking, 'Oh, this is going to be a deep dive in discovery of myself.' But it really allowed me to unlock some things inside me. It was basically like getting free therapy in a corset and heels."
"A lot of it had to do with the fact that, I've never been on a show that's been that gay behind the scenes before. And being surrounded by all that queerness, it all felt safe. I felt safe to be whatever I needed to be, to explore whatever I needed to explore — like my own inner sexiness, which I'm still working on. But being able to accept myself in drag was a starting place to be able to accept feeling better about myself out of drag. So I'm getting there."
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Chic-Fi-Lay will be back for Friday's finale of RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race, which airs Friday at 8 p.m. ET on VH1.
As for whether we'll see her again after the finale, McHale says he's hanging up his heels — for now.
"She had a good run," he says, "but she can R.I.P."
