Brandi Andrews and Lawrence Carroll never planned on sharing diaper-duty spreadsheets when they first bonded over late-night copy deadlines at their Charlotte marketing job. Four years later they’re tag-teaming 2-a.m. bottle feeds for their son, Hartley, while juggling two separate love lives and one very blended household. Their story starts with a pact: if neither had kids by thirty-five, they’d try together. Life moved faster—fertility consults at thirty, a successful IUI on the second round, and a baby shower where Brandi’s girlfriend and Lawrence’s boyfriend built the crib side by side.
Pregnancy brought its own plot twists. Brandi, a self-described spreadsheet warrior, tracked every prenatal vitamin; Lawrence Googled “best Broadway lullabies” and built a playlist Hartley still falls asleep to. The duo agreed on equal parenting from day one, splitting nights, costs, and pediatric appointments regardless of whose week it was with partners. Family reactions ranged from tear-streaked joy to polite confusion—Lawrence’s aunt needed a diagram—but once Hartley arrived, skepticism melted into god-parent sign-ups.
Enter Courteney Cox. A mutual friend shared the pair’s Instagram diaries—bump pics labeled “Team Gayby”—and the sitcom legend sent a small crew to document their nine-month countdown. The resulting mini-doc, Modern Love: Hartley’s Village, premieres this fall, capturing everything from Brandi’s first trimester cravings for pickle-flavored Oreos to Lawrence practicing swaddles on the family pug.
Dating while co-parenting is an exercise in Google Calendar diplomacy. Brandi’s girlfriend jokes she’s “dating three people, one of them in diapers,” while Lawrence’s partner loves that Tuesday date nights come with built-in babysitters. The adults share a group chat called Hartley HQ, where memes mingle with pediatrics notes and the occasional “please pick up oat milk.”
Asked what they hope viewers learn from their unconventional path, Brandi doesn’t skip a beat: “That biology and romance aren’t the only blueprints for family.” Lawrence nods, bouncing Hartley on his knee: “Love is a larger table, not a tighter box.” Their journey proves friendship can be fertile ground—literally—for raising the next generation.
