ROSE SULLIVAN: We have four boys, who are all under seven years old.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: It was a surprise, but now we’re having another one.
ROSE SULLIVAN: I had dated both Buddy and Lauren in the past so, and then me and Buddy
got back together and then after time, I looked up Lauren on Facebook to see, like, how she
was doing and we met up and just started hanging out as friends.
LAUREN KING: None of us were looking for a relationship.
ROSE SULLIVAN: Yeah. LAUREN KING: It just turned into a relationship,
where it just worked out with all three of us being together.
LAUREN KING: Polyamorous is like, meaning
loving more than one person so you can be intimate with more than one person at the same time.
COMM: Poly triad Rose, Buddy and Lauren have been together for four years. They all live
with one another and their four sons.
COMM: Buddy is father to all four and Rose is mother to Owen, James and Ryan, while Lauren
is mother to Damien.
LAUREN KING: People ask, 'Are you guys open or would you be open to dating somebody else?'
Or is it okay if Rose would date a different girl or there’s some relationships like that,
but we’re not like that, we’re closed. Which means it’s just us three and everything
is pretty much equal.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: That’s what’s funny is we’re pretty much just as a normal family,
except you know, there is an extra mom and we all have a lot of kids.
LAUREN KING: The questions, is always ‘How is the sex?’
and it’s like, well you’ve seen pornos with threesomes so obviously,
it’s great, it’s fine.
LAUREN KING: We don’t have like a schedule, like we’re going to have sex. It’s always
like spur of the moment. And when we do, it’s always the three of us, it’s, you know,
it probably starts with like me and Rose then Buddy joins in and I think he gets like
the best because he has got two women, but then, I get it, you know, we all have it good
because I can... BUDDY SULLIVAN: Yeah.
LAUREN KING: Decide how we want to BUDDY SULLIVAN: Yeah...
LAUREN KING: switch around what we want to do in the bedroom. It’s never boring. It’s
definitely exciting.
COMM: Although this triad already have a family of seven under one roof, there will soon be
an additional member joining them.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: Lauren and I always wanted to have another kid and Rose was always on-board
for that, definitely. But we weren’t really planning on doing it right this moment. It
was meant to happen and it did. So, now we’re having another one.
LAUREN KING: I always joke and say if this
one is a girl, I’ll be done. But if it’s a boy – possibly try for another girl. We’ll see.
COMM: Today, Rose, Lauren and Buddy are having their mid-pregnancy scan which is when they
will be able to find out the sex of their next child.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: Well, I am excited to find
out what the sex is going to be. LAUREN KING: Super excited!
BUDDY SULLIVAN: I don’t really, I mean, of course I hope it’s a boy but if it is
a girl, that’s awesome.
LAUREN KING: You hope it’s a boy, I hope it’s a girl.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: Yeah! LAUREN KING: But if it’s a boy, I will love
him just as much. We just have so many boys already.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: We will love him just as much. LAUREN KING: I’d love to have a girl.
I will love him just as much. BUDDY SULLIVAN: Yeah.
LAUREN KING: Yeah.
BOY: Girl. LAUREN KING: You hope it’s a girl? Yeah.
ROSE SULLIVAN: In my family at first was just
hesitant because of the kids. After they got to know Lauren and saw her with the kids and
saw all of us together, they have been completely fine with it.
LAUREN KING: My family was probably sceptical.
But then when they saw I was pregnant and I wasn’t leaving or they weren’t leaving,
they weren't like, ‘Oh! Okay, bye! We don’t want you here anymore,’ and that’s
when my family was more accepting of it.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, I would say my family at first it was more like they were just shocked.
Then after they kind of figured out that we were really serious about it, they were a
lot more accepting and supportive of it.
LAUREN KING: My friends in the lesbian community and they were the ones who were the least
accepting of it. They were the hardest to get through to and some of them I still don’t talk to.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: One of the best things is, you know, Rose doesn’t have to work because
Lauren works and so we, Lauren and I together have two incomes, which financially it’s
great. You know we can, you know, take care of the bills, no problem and have someone
to watch the boys while we are at work. So it works out that way.
WOMAN: All right, guys. You could yell it
out when I stop it. You could say girl or boy. Okay? 1,2,3…
WOMAN: It is a boy.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: You are getting a brother.
ROSE SULLIVAN: 5 boys! BUDDY SULLIVAN: That’s right. 5 boys!
LAUREN KING: You say brother. BOY: Brother.
LAUREN KING: Brother. Yeah!
COMM: As well as adding to their brood, the triad are also planning to solidify their
relationship even further.
LAUREN KING: We are all engaged. They proposed to me two years ago in November. We went to
the top of Mount Helix and I had no idea that they were going to do this and it was like
night-time and the sun was setting.
LAUREN KING: Both of them got on their knees and said, ‘Will you marry us? We want you
to know that this is permanent.’
COMM: And the family are also beginning a landmark adoption process so that Lauren and
Rose can be legal guardians for each other’s biological children.
ROSE SULLIVAN: Adopting Damien, this is kind
of like a test run in California because nobody else has done it. We are trying for a step-parent
adoption but it’s going to be a three-parent adoption, which, the three-parent adoption
hasn’t been done in California.
BUDDY SULLIVAN: We are just normal people. I know we have a unique situation that we
are in. But our goal as a family is pretty much the same as everyone else you know. We
want to raise our children to be good people and to do good and be successful in life.
We are not trying to say everyone else should be polyamorous, you know. We support, you
know, people who are in regular marriages too.
LAUREN KING: People always assume that I love
one person more than the other and I don’t. I love them both the same. I love them equally,
we all love each other equally and that’s what makes our relationship different.