How the queer ‘Small Town Potential’ couple went from Instagram influencers to pioneering TV hosts
Sapphic power couple and HGTV hosts Kristin Leitheuser (R) and Davina Thomasula (L) (HGTV)
A new HGTV show has been announced featuring a sapphic couple as hosts – and it all started on Instagram.
Davina Thomasula and Kristin Leitheuser from Poughkeepsie, New York, were tapped to become hosts of a new show on the home design channel HGTV after Thomasula started sharing their own personal renovation project and progress on social media.
Their videos soon made it to someone in HGTV casting and now they are the hosts of Small Town Potential, which will focus on renovations in the Hudson Valley, New York.
Thomasula will act as the real estate agent and designer while her partner, Leitheuser will do the renovations.
This will be the first show to feature two queer women as hosts – although HGTV has other shows starring LGBTQ+ couples.
Thomasula told Today.com that she felt that being the first queer female couple is “a big responsibility”.
She said: “I’m so nervous. But we want to be visible and create awareness. I think that’s really important for our community. So we’re proud to be here, and this is what we want to do.”
Leitheuser chimed in to say: “Super important, we know how much (importance) this holds. We’re here for it man, what a position to be in.”
The show will also feature Kristin Leitheuser’s dad Don, who is a carpenter and helps the couple with their renovations.
How does Leitheuser feel about working with her partner and dad? She told GLAAD: “It’s always tough working with family but there’s also so many synergies there too. It’s a blast working with them. With anything, there’s challenges and having that balance of work and personal life. I literally live with it and bring it home. But it’s still a lot of fun. We’re so fun together that it’s kind of easy.”
“It’s easy until it’s not. We get through it but I think things can become a little more emotional because you’re so close. So we have to look at taking the emotion out of it and getting the job done,” Thomasula added.
The couple met after Leitheuser moved to New York City when she was younger to do a “corporate stint”, she told Today.com. Thomasula worked as a bartender and served Leitheuser a Guinness.
The couple now own their own little “neighbourhood bar”, a dream from before they left New York City, according to GLAAD.
The couple have been together for 10 years and engaged for four years but have not yet set a wedding date.
Leitheuser and Thomasula appeared in the first episode of HGTV’s Small Town Potential on Sunday, March 3, transforming an 1800s-era farmhouse into a dream home.
