Pete Buttigieg and husband Chasten Buttigieg are officially parents!
After sharing the good news just last month, the U.S. secretary of transportation, 39, posted the first black-and-white family photo of himself and Chasten, 32, each holding one of their swaddled newborn twins. The couple welcomed a boy and a girl, revealing their names in the post.
“Chasten and I are beyond thankful for all the kind wishes since first sharing the news that we’re becoming parents,” they wrote in a joint statement. “We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family.”
Previously Pete announced that he and Chasten were parents on Twitter last month. “For some time, Chasten and I have wanted to grow our family. We’re overjoyed to share that we’ve become parents!” he wrote.
“The process isn’t done yet and we’re thankful for the love, support, and respect for our privacy that has been offered to us,” Pete added. “We can’t wait to share more soon.”
Buttigieg married Chasten, a middle school teacher, in June 2018, after thee pair met on Hinge and began dating in 2015. They have not been shy about their family plans, telling PEOPLE they’re “excited” about becoming parents. “We’re just navigating those conversations,” Chasten said in September 2020.
“I’m so glad that we get this time and we’re both to ourselves, into a bunch of projects, but we still get to have dinner together every night. And it’s allowed us to have conversations, those necessary conversations, and now it’s really overwhelming figuring out how and where and when, and how much — my God,” he added.
“But luckily, we have a lot of friends who’ve had families in very different ways. So, we’ve just been having great conversations with our friends about how they figured it out, and we’ll go from there. We’re just really excited and overwhelmed, I think.”
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“Very excited,” Pete chimed in. “It’s one thing when you’re in the middle of a campaign and there’s just no room for anything else. Not that there’ll ever be an easy or simple time. I don’t think there is for anybody, but it’s time to take those steps.”
Pete announced his bid for president in the 2020 election.
And while the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, lost the Democratic primary to President Joe Biden, Pete was the first openly gay person to hold a Cabinet post.