Sykes’ unlikely family

Wanda Sykes has had an unusual life, said David Marchese in

The New York Times Magazine. The comic, 55, married a man in 1991, divorced him in 1998, came out as a lesbian 10 years later, and married a white French woman, Alex Niedbalski, who gave birth to twins. Sykes has made her “uncommon experience” part of her humor, joking, “There is nothing creepier than waking up and seeing two little white kids standing at the foot of your bed.” Offstage, Sykes concedes that she worries about her kids’ perception of race. “You want to be in a world where they can just live and be good people and not have to think that, but you have to have the conversation.” At her kids’ birthday parties, Sykes looks around and wonders, “‘Wait, you mean to tell me they’ve only got one little black friend?’ But I can’t force it.” Race became an issue for Sykes professionally while she was working as a writer and producer on the Roseanne reboot. When Barr took to Twitter to compare President Obama’s former aide Valerie Jarrett to an ape, Sykes quit the sitcom, telling the producers, “Guys, I can’t be part of this.” She considered Barr a friend, so it hurt. “Here’s the thing. You could be a good person and a racist and not even know it.”