Lesbian lifestyle guru Leslie Ezelle gained fame on HGTV’s ‘Design Star,’ but her greatest victory was turning breast cancer into a motivator for success
SPA YOURSELF | Leslie Ezelle has turned lessons learned as a breast cancer survivor into a lifestyle
philosophy. (Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice)
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Life+Style Editor
When Leslie Ezelle steps into Cowboys Stadium this weekend, it won’t be the first time she’s performed in a venue that houses America’s Team: 25 years ago, she slipped on the spangled short-shorts and halter top and, for two seasons, rah-rah’d as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
“It is weird,” she agrees. “I’m delighted to be back. The fact I’m able to go into that room” is a kind of victory.
Life has changed a lot for Ezelle in her years since she cheered: Breakups and relationships, co-parenting her four with her partner Libby (she jokes that they could have their own reality show, The Real Modern Family), starting a business, gaining fame (and eventually, the championship) on reality TV. And most dramatic of all was her diagnosis of breast cancer.
But all these changes have been blessings for Ezelle, each one feeding a piece of her to make her who she is.
Her story as a breast cancer survivor (and her openness about it) made her a popular contestant on a season of HGTV’s Design Star. Although she was kicked off before the finale, she returned for the All Star edition, winning the prize money … but not the thing she most desired.
“The money was spent before the check arrived,” she jokes over ahi tuna tacos at Dragonfly in the Hotel Zaza. “It was really great to win … but I still didn’t get my own show!”
But if fighting cancer has taught her one thing, it is tenacity.
“I have not stopped! I’ve been a dog with a bone,” she says.
In the meantime, Ezelle — whose design company is based in Dallas — continued to apply the lessons from her life to develop lifestyle ideas for women like her: Those who want their environment to be peaceful, production and healthy.
Toward that end, Ezelle will be making several presentations at the Great Big Dallas Home Show at Cowboys Stadium this weekend. (The Home Show is especially gay this year, with Ezelle joined this weekend by fellow reality celeb Josh Flagg of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing.) In one demo, which she labels Tame Your Domain, she explores “the importance of a happy, healthy home.”
“Our home is one place we can control,” she explains. Her goal is to help people create “a healthy-driven and aesthetically pleasing environment — your home as spa, from kitchen to office to bath to bedroom.”
The process, she says, is really just applying rules we’ve been taught since the 1970s. Still, it isn’t always easy.
“I had lost control of my home,” Ezelle admits. “It took longer for me to heal because of it. I was the first person I history to beg my doctor to keep me in the hospital longer.”
Ezelle puts a lot of her ideas into practice not only at her own home (which she and Libby recently remodeled themselves), but with her friends and clients. One of the most surprising pieces of advice? Do not bring home to work.
“Nope,” she says. “Not even your bills. Keep home at home, but put everything in what I call a stress box: Stress out as much as you have to … for an hour. Then put it in a closet and close the door. Keep it there.”
Ezelle counsels making the bedroom a refuge as well. “Unplug!” she says. “No electronics.” (The means no iPad in bed.) In your bathroom, hide all the things that make it look like a bathroom — shampoo bottle sitting out, for example — and turn it into a spa.
Then take a long, hot bath.
These rules were developed with women in mind, but Ezelle knows men (especially gay men an metrosexuals) enjoy a little pampering, too. Still, that won’t stop her from another demo, “a sort of Cosmo Quiz about men and women, about how to get your design aesthetic in your life.” (One rule: You should always be able to see the top of your bedside table.)
But being at peace with her home and coming to appreciate life as a cancer survivor hasn’t slowed down Ezelle’s ambitions one iota. In addition to developing a line of pillows that provide comfort and fashion sense to women recuperating from surgery, she’s working on several books, blogging incessantly and growing her design business. And there is still the ultimate goal: Developing a lifestyle TV show to bring her ideas to the masses.
“Eventually the network will get tired of me [and give me a show],” she says.
We don’t put it by her.
To learn more, visit LeslieChristineDesigns.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 8, 2013.