The Truth About The Little Couple's Dr. Jen Arnold

tlc's the little couple star dr jen arnold isn't just a well-known reality star along with being a devoted wife and mother of two she's a beloved medical director at johns hopkins all children's hospital in st petersburg florida so how does she balance it all here's the truth about dr jen arnold these days jen is definitely living her best life but despite her seemingly charmed circumstances she had a difficult entry into the world starting with health complications when she was born she recalled to the tampa bay times my parents were really young 20 and 21. i came out in a lot of respiratory distress and was transferred pretty immediately to the neonatal intensive care unit at all children's in order to set jen up for the best possible scenario her parents agreed to multiple surgeries for their daughter starting in early childhood since then jen has undergone a total of 35 surgeries even surviving cancer as an adult in 2013. i was a patient most of my life i benefited so much from the care of the doctors and nurses that cared for me jen was born in st petersburg florida but early on in her childhood her family moved to central florida and they're essentially living every kid's dream jen basically had a theme park for a backyard she told the tampa bay times in orlando my mom worked at disney for 30 years so i was a disney brat i got to go to disney whenever i wanted but as much as jen loved running around in the parks her heart very much remained back in st pete she said my aunt and uncle lived in saint pete beach and i came to saint pete every chance i could get i really grew up there and on the beach every vacation and summer i was sent here the beach for me reminds me of my childhood and a lot of good times i'm my happiest when i'm at the beach jen was living in houston when the little couple first hit the air but she eventually relocated her family back home to her native florida she calls saint pete her quote happy place you don't have to be a longtime fan of the little couple to know that johns hopkins medical school in baltimore maryland is one of the most prestigious in the world and that's one of the schools where jen got her education walking away with her medical degree in 2000. people forget that i i really am a physician i don't play one on tv but if you thought getting into an undergrad program was tough jen can tell you all about the challenges of enrolling in med school she revealed to the tampa bay times i applied to over 30 schools and only got interviews with two and one of them was because i knew the president of the university of miami but jen has her suspicions as to why so few schools were interested she said in my personal statement i said that i was a little person and that i had benefited from great health care and i wanted to give back to kids i never know to this day if that's why i didn't get any other interviews but i feel like it probably had something to do with it when i get to see a family you know knowing that their future is bright that is what makes everything that i've done to get here worth it jen officially linked up with her husband bill klein via a dating site for little people but that was far from being the first time they'd ever met in fact the pair got to know each other as children in the hospital way back in the day jen recalled to the tampa bay times he remembers coming into my room and thinking that i was really cute and apparently i shooed him out of the room and my mom shoot him out of the room because i was like vomiting but he was cruising the hall for chicks literally in his wheelchair and he remembers meeting me while the pair lost touch back then they ultimately crossed paths later in life on a professional level after both shadowing the same doctor who eventually encouraged them to hang out it wasn't until jen and bill met again online that the sparks truly flew we waited so long to find our soul mate and once we found each other it was like okay i'm not never letting go longtime fans of the little couple know the challenges jen and bill endured in order to have a family of their own because of jen's skeletal disorders and the risk involved with becoming pregnant herself she and bill decided to use a surrogate to grow their family i am very blessed in my life but i feel like a lot of our life is spent with one hurdle after the next and it's like i just wanted one thing to kind of be easy when the couple learned that the surrogate was pregnant for the first time in 2011 they were elated but joy quickly turned to heartbreak when she ultimately suffered a miscarriage while the experience was a crushing blow to the family jen doesn't regret going public with her struggles she explained to people when we lost the pregnancy we wondered how we were going to handle it but by sharing our story whether it be positive or negative i think it can help others going through similar things unfortunately the surrogate had a second miscarriage in 2016 as the couple detailed in their book think big overcoming obstacles with optimism that's when they made the decision to adopt later welcoming their two beautiful children will and zoe bill and i have tried over the last five years to really open up our lives good and bad these days there's no shortage of reality shows about all walks of life from little people to large people to sister wives and families with loads of children but when the little couple debuted back in 2009 the media landscape was very different and jen and bill actually turned producers down multiple times in regards to launching a show jen explained to the tampa bay times at the time that we were talking about this whole series option i was shopping in bed bath and beyond and a little girl who was probably about seven or eight came up to me and said oh you're a little person like little people big world at that time you never heard the term little person from someone who didn't have a little person in their family piggybacking off of the success of little people big world which had debuted three years earlier in 2006 and heartened by the changes she was seeing in the world jen decided that maybe they could advocate for normalizing the lives of people like them by having their own show so they filmed a pilot it got picked up and the rest is history you might have found yourself wondering whether reality stars ever watched their own shows and when it comes to jen and bill it appears that they tune in with the rest of us bill explained to glamour by and large we don't watch the episodes until they air so we see them the same time you guys do sensitive hospital stuff that jennifer needs to review beforehand is seen but those are just little pieces you're good i do as for whether or not these two also binge marathons of the little couple jen explained that they won't change the channel if they happen to catch them in fact jen says she would someday love to go back and watch the show from the very beginning adding if nothing else it would be fun to see how we were as a couple before we had will because now i can't even remember what it was like this morning it's no secret that reality tv isn't always well real whether it involves reshooting scenes to get the best take or producers stirring the pot to create drama most fans of reality shows know to take it all with a grain of salt and when it came to the little couple jen dropped a bit of a bombshell when she revealed that the celebrations you see on tv may not always be the real thing surprise jen told huffpost we try to remind each other that dinners out with the cameras don't really count and that we still need to have a separate celebratory dinner for us for birthdays and anniversaries even though we celebrate on camera we do something separate as well while that revelation may be a bit disappointing for fans that just means that in real life everyone gets twice as much cake yep lots of palm trees everything is flowing after more than a decade into filming their series jen and bill are feeling the love from fans but they're so famous in fact that some followers have figured out exactly where they live and have even appeared at their house jen revealed glamour everyone has been so nice but when someone knocks on your door you do wonder if they are well intended or not and maybe get a little nervous so we do of course prefer when they send us a letter since when we are at home that is obviously our private time somebody's here who's here is that someone at the door yeah a few brave souls have even reportedly showed up at their door on christmas eve while jen and bill hope that people respect their privacy jen understands that fans just want to meet them she added seriously everyone that has come to our door has been very well intended i do get it though because people watch us and feel like they know us jen didn't sign onto a reality show just to get rich and famous instead she hoped that having a public voice could help her bring about real change she told the washington post my goal of putting our lives out there is to raise awareness so whenever i have the opportunity to use this platform well that's why i put up with tv cameras in our house all kids are at risk of experiencing bullying and for will and zoe they are even more high risk because they have a pretty you know obvious physical difference while her star power has provided her with a strong foundation for advocacy when jen learned that congress was considering cutting medicare she knew she had to act so she and her family traveled to dc to convey the potential devastation that would ultimately hit families this is a cause that is near and dear to my heart it speaks to every aspect of who i am jen told the outlet the better care reconciliation act is scary it would cut 43 billion dollars in medicaid funding which would more negatively affect kids than adults we have to speak out with a successful reality show blazing full speed ahead jen's high-profile job bill's pet store and two young children running around you might be wondering if the little couple ever gets a minute to themselves well it appears that they do find a way to rest and rejuvenate out of the spotlight bill told glamour we do our thing we cook dinners we talk about the ups and downs of work and family he revealed that they also binge lots of good tv together and as jen tells it she has her own way of making sure they keep the spark alive in their marriage she shared the most important thing is to spend time together and plan a date night you have to go enjoy yourselves together and that definitely helps keep the love life alive having each other and knowing that we're in it together um is probably the biggest stress relief as most of us understand in the instagram age fame definitely has its advantages and its disadvantages and as for what that looks like for jen she claims she has experienced more of the good stuff versus the bad she shared with glamour the biggest joy from the show is those moments where somebody sends a message or tells us that the show has helped them in some personal way it's a really cool thing it makes me feel happy and proud when that happens well just because they have a disability doesn't mean that they don't have a life that's just as valuable as anyone else's according to jen those connections with fans can be about anything from fertility issues to the adoption process to the physical and medical challenges of living as a little person but when it comes to the most difficult aspect of being a reality star jen says it's mostly when people stop her while she's busy at work but she added it's a good problem to have we're so fortunate to have the following we have i can't even remember what happened yesterday i'm so excited about today one great thing about having a reality show that centers around your family is having all those special moments recorded forever and being able to revisit them anytime at the push of a button but jen revealed her most cherished memory telling glamour my all-time favorite show is adoption day when we adopted will i talk about it and start getting teary-eyed you are as american as french fries and a cheeseburger dude will's adoption officially marked the day jen became a mom for the first time after a long heartbreaking struggle while she's clearly deeply devoted to both of her children she said it's the most amazing home video to have it all documented is just oh my gosh it brings me tears first it was finding a husband and now i actually have i have a son i mean i almost feel like i don't deserve it check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more list videos about your favorite celebs are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one you

Channel: The List

Views: 492,677

Rating: 4.9222751 out of 5

Keywords: the list, little couple, dr jen arnold, reality tv, tlc show

Id: b8ZWEQilB_8

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021