Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you’re gawking at it from the outside. In this column, we’ll be examining the celebrity couples—or, occasionally, friend or sibling pairs—who give us hope for our own relationship futures as we try to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds. Welcome to I Want What They Have, Sibling Edition.
I am, quite famously, an only child (yes, I’m spoiled, and no, I won’t share my vintage Polly Pocket collection with you), so there’s a lot I don’t understand about the bonds between siblings. I’m lucky enough to have two wonderful stepsisters I got to know as an adult and best friends close enough that I think of them as my sisters, but crucially they aren’t actually my sisters, which means we don’t have years’ worth of toxic energy based on who stole whose shirt in seventh grade. I’ve always considered myself on the lucky end, especially after learning about the knockdown, drag-out, straight-up bloody battles some of my loved ones got into with their siblings growing up, but seeing Pedro and Lux Pascal dominate the 2024 Emmys might be sort of...changing my mind? Is having a sibling fun? Am I—God forbid—missing out? Someone reassure me!
There were plenty of adorable family dates on the red carpet Monday, but the Pascals were arguably the most glamorous of the bunch, in their coordinated black ensembles. Pedro Pascal, of course, is well-known for his starring role on The Last of Us, but his sister Lux is also an actor, as well as a model (who just graduated from Juilliard, NBD—and of course her brother was proudly there at the ceremony). The Chilean-born, California-raised sibling pair has a whopping 17 years between them, but the age difference didn’t seem to stop Pedro from showing his little sister his support when she came out as a trans woman in a cover story for Spanish-language magazine Ya in 2021. “Mi hermana, mi corazón, nuestra Lux,” Pedro wrote on Instagram at the time, telling Esquire afterward: “My protective side is lethal, but I need her more than she needs me.” Sob!
Showing up for a trans loved one in this way should ideally be completely commonplace, but sadly it’s not—at either the personal or political level. I unabashedly admire Pedro for modeling public love for and pride in his trans sister’s accomplishments, but what I really enjoy about this sibling pair (who also have two other siblings, Javiera and Nicolás) is their ability to just…well, be together. Giving nice quotes to press outlets is all well and good, but goofing off on a red carpet as full-grown adults shows that you’re truly connected—especially when you’re both hot famous people with the ability to hang out with all manner of other hot famous people outside of your immediate family. We love a chosen bond!
