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"Bill Klein and Dr. Jennifer Arnold have managed to do what most reality-show couples can&amp;#x27;t: lead a drama-free existence that still is entertaining to viewers. After all, how do you explain how their show, TLC&amp;#x27;s The Little Couple, has enthralled fans since 2009 and recently had its highest-rated episode yet? The show&amp;#x27;s original concept delved into how Jen and Bill led their lives with skeletal dysplasia (which is the medical term for dwarfism). As the seasons went on, viewers paid less attention to the fact that the couple were physically different than most of us and instead focused on their plans to build their dream home and start a family. As Bill explains, &amp;quot;Our show went from something that wasn&amp;#x27;t very relatable to something that was.&amp;quot; In what was probably one of my favorite interviews to date (because I&amp;#x27;ve watched the show since day one!), Bill and Jen took pictures exclusively for us and opened up about life with three-year-old Will, getting ready to adopt Zoey, and the lengths that fans have gone to meet them. We talked over the phone in separate interviews. (Bill had 45 minutes to chat before the nanny left, while Jen called me two days later after getting home from the hospital before sitting down to eat with the family.) Combine that with Rocky (or maybe it was Maggie) barking in the background, and Will playfully yakking away before dinner, and you had one very real interview. Glamour: How regularly do you and Jen watch the episodes when they air? Bill Klein: By and large, we don&amp;#x27;t watch them until they air, so we see them the same time you guys do. Sensitive hospital stuff that Jennifer needs to review before hand [is seen], but those are just little pieces. Glamour: Has Will watched himself on TV yet? Bill: [Laughs] He does. He gets a kick out of it. If he sees me or Jen, he points at the TV and will shout, &amp;quot;Mama&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Baba.&amp;quot; If he sees himself, he&amp;amp;#8217;ll point and say &amp;quot;Will,&amp;quot; and he&amp;amp;#8217;s very exuberant and happy about it. He seems to get a kick out of it. Glamour: Do you ever go back and watch old episodes? Dr. Jennifer Arnold: That&amp;amp;#8217;s funny, I don&amp;amp;#8217;t think either of us have gone back and watched them, unless TLC is running a marathon. That&amp;amp;#8217;s actually a good idea. We should sit down and watch them, especially the beginning ones, because we were so nervous, like, &amp;quot;How did it come out? What did we say?&amp;quot; And now we&amp;#x27;re much more nonchalant about it. If nothing else, it would be fun to see how we were as a couple before we had Will because now I can&amp;amp;#8217;t even remember what it was like this morning. [Laughs] Glamour: You and Bill are much more relaxed with the cameras than you were when the series first premiered. At what point did you find yourself not paying as much attention? Jen: I&amp;amp;#8217;m sure people can tell when we became more comfortable, but for Bill and I, it was a little bit more subtle. As a little person, you are used to people looking at you when you&amp;amp;#8217;re out in public because people are constantly staring or asking questions. From that perspective, I think being on-camera wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t as hard because [of what we were used to prior]. Plus, we&amp;amp;#8217;re so comfortable with our crew too. Glamour: How difficult was it to have Texas Children&amp;#x27;s Hospital agree to be a part of the show?\uFFFD Jen: It was hard in the beginning because when I was first getting hired, I said there was the slight possibility of the show, and they said, &amp;quot;All right, let us know.&amp;quot; So when the show became a reality, we got in touch with the PR folks there, but there was a lot of hesitation. As a hospital, they have a lot to lose, and they wanted to make sure it would show the hospital in a good light. A lot conversations took place with our production company, LMNO, and the hospital administration, and they were able to come up with an agreement. Now they are just thrilled with it. I also had a lot to lose too as a physician, in that I couldn&amp;amp;#8217;t have anything sensational, otherwise I wouldn&amp;#x27;t be able to work as a doctor. Not that I would do anything, but I was just as concerned as they were. LMNO was great and had done shows in other hospitals, so I think everybody felt more comfortable. And now, it has turned out to be this great relationship. Glamour: One of my favorite moments was when you took the trip to Hawaii. I remember when you and Jen saw the size of the bathtub in your suite, and you joked, &amp;quot;Jenny could go swimming in there!&amp;quot; Bill: Haha! What I get a kick out of is what she and I do on camera, but not such big activity punctuated things. For instance, the riffing that goes on between the two of us. You don&amp;amp;#8217;t pay attention to that when you&amp;amp;#8217;re in the moment talking to each other. When the cameras aren&amp;amp;#8217;t around, I&amp;amp;#8217;m sure it happens, but we&amp;amp;#8217;re just not aware of it. But I enjoy seeing that because it&amp;amp;#8217;s an interesting perspective to see you and your spouse interacting in a way where you&amp;amp;#8217;re smiling all the time and happy and all that sort of stuff. It&amp;amp;#8217;s nice to see that we&amp;amp;#8217;re truly happy and putting a smile on each other&amp;#x27;s face. I get a little giddy when I see those things. Glamour: Jen, what was your favorite moment so far? Jen: My all-time favorite now is adoption day when we adopted Will. I talk about it and start getting teary-eyed. It&amp;amp;#8217;s the most amazing home video. To have it all documented, is just, oh my gosh...it brings me tears. Glamour: I have to read you what Bill said. [FYI: I did]. Jen: Awww! That&amp;amp;#8217;s so sweet. Oh my goodness, I do have a very romantic husband. All these posts on our website say how awesome Bill is and they want to marry someone like Bill, and I&amp;amp;#8217;m like, &amp;quot;OK, but you can&amp;amp;#8217;t marry Bill!&amp;quot; [Laughs] Glamour: You have a gorgeous home, but I have to assume fans have taken it upon themselves to do drive-bys and pay you an unannounced visit! Bill: Yeah, yeah, we&amp;amp;#8217;ve had a few of those. We&amp;amp;#8217;ve had people come to the door or tear pages out of books and write full-length notes and stick them in our mailbox. I actually almost gave one lady a heart attack because I went to get the mail, and she was on my doorstep. I opened up the door while she was right there writing her note, and she fell over and all that stuff. We&amp;amp;#8217;ve had people come on Christmas Eve and all sorts of occasions. Dr. Jennifer Arnold: 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. But 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! Glamour: How does that affect you, when fans or strangers constantly pop into your life? Bill: It is a little different. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t think either of us can say it&amp;amp;#8217;s something we were prepared for, but the good news is that everybody is really nice. It&amp;amp;#8217;s not like people come up to the door and tell us they don&amp;amp;#8217;t like us. [Laughs] People genuinely like us, which is very nice. The timing might be off sometimes, so it&amp;amp;#8217;s hard to tell people, &amp;quot;Oh, hey, we&amp;amp;#8217;re having Christmas dinner.&amp;quot; But sometimes you have to. Most people are nice folks. We get a lot of that at the store. They come in to say hi to us and even though my wife doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t work there, they assume she&amp;amp;#8217;s there, so that&amp;amp;#8217;s kind of a separate hysterical conversation that they have, like, &amp;quot;Where&amp;amp;#8217;s Jen?!&amp;quot; And I&amp;amp;#8217;m like, &amp;quot;She&amp;amp;#8217;s doing that doctor thing that she does.&amp;quot; Glamour: What do fans most want to know when they meet you guys? Bill: Well, now the hot topic is when is my daughter going to join the family. When we were first opened up the pet shop and had a venue for people to seek us out, we were being approached by different folks depending on what was going on. We had folks that were dealing with a disability, or I&amp;amp;#8217;d be in the store doing inventory, and someone would come in wanting to talk to me about their infertility stuff. Then when we started down the road of adopting Will, people would come in droves to tell us about their adoption stories. So it&amp;amp;#8217;s kind of interesting as the show goes along, that people have come into the shop to talk to us and all that fun stuff. Photo: TLC Glamour: I hope at this point everyone who comes in to the store is buying something there. Bill: That would be nice! My mother-in-law in particular does try to enforce that. [Laughs] She does it with a smile, like, &amp;quot;Do you want a hat or something?&amp;amp;#8217; We&amp;amp;#8217;ve gotten a lot of people that are like, &amp;quot;We don&amp;amp;#8217;t have a dog, but we were hoping to see Bill and Jen!&amp;quot; That&amp;amp;#8217;s kind of funny. It&amp;amp;#8217;s a welcome thing. Glamour: I love the pics you sent us of Will at the beach. Has he started liking it more? Bill: Well, he likes the pool. He has a lesson today as a matter of fact. But you know what&amp;amp;#8217;s weird is that he doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t like textured surfaces to walk on. He doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t like grass, he doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t like sand. He tolerates it after a short period of time, but if you were to give him a path that&amp;amp;#8217;s a mile long and paved versus walking on 50 feet of grass, he&amp;amp;#8217;d walk a mile. It&amp;amp;#8217;s very strange! Glamour: What&amp;#x27;s Will&amp;#x27;s favorite food? Bill: He likes chicken. He loves grilled chicken, a chicken nugget. We don&amp;amp;#8217;t do too much in the way of fried chicken, but he has a funny cluck-cluck name for that. Glamour: What will you dress him up as for Halloween? Bill: Well, it&amp;amp;#8217;s not a chicken, but there a couple of front-runners, some of which I&amp;amp;#8217;m not allowed to repeat because my wife thinks I&amp;amp;#8217;m horribly funny, but a horrible person for saying it. [Laughs] Glamour: What&amp;#x27;s the latest with his sleep apnea and the other physical tests? Bill: You&amp;amp;#8217;ll see our best attempt at resolving his sleep apnea. We went to Delaware and got the professional assessments from the folks up there, which was alarming. He&amp;#x27;s gone for other sleep studies recently, but we&amp;amp;#8217;ve noticed now that even if he takes a nap, it&amp;amp;#8217;s so much better. But it was tough in China. We were watching him sleep, and it just freaked us out. Obviously he made it to the age he&amp;amp;#8217;s at, so we knew he&amp;amp;#8217;d make it through the night, but it freaked us out, and I have a physician on staff 24 hours a day! You&amp;amp;#8217;d think I&amp;amp;#8217;d be more relaxed, but no. Glamour: You and Jen truly have a magnificent relationship. What most attracted you to Jen when you met her? Bill: It was everything but her driving! Kidding! We met online of course, but when we first met, I was nervous, but I also was nervous because all the getting to know each other that we had done over the phone, I [hoped would translate in person]. And then everything else just kind of went away, and I was so focused on her. But her smile&amp;amp;#8212;that&amp;amp;#8217;s probably the thing I love most about her. Aside from the fact that she&amp;amp;#8217;s a successful woman, doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t give up, and is outgoing and personable, she&amp;amp;#8217;s got this incredible smile. It&amp;amp;#8217;s real, and it just lights up a room. It never gets old. Jen: There are many things, but the things that stand out are 1) his sense of humor, 2) his baby blue eyes, and 3) when I first talked to Bill on the phone before we met, I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t know a lot about him, but the first time we talked, I felt like I had known him my entire life. It was the strangest thing, but it was awesome. I told him I could talk to him forever because it felt like I knew him forever. Glamour: How long will you keep doing the series?\uFFFDJust so you know, I think it should be a very long time! Bill: We don&amp;amp;#8217;t really talk about it too much. If it became too cumbersome, we&amp;amp;#8217;d probably leave it behind, but we&amp;amp;#8217;ve gotten good at managing careers and our personal lives and still be able to capture moments that are TV-worthy, so to speak, without it interfering. We still work two full-time jobs and can still cook dinner every night for our son and spend quality time with each other, so right now it&amp;amp;#8217;s not too bad. I think once Zoey comes in to the picture, we&amp;amp;#8217;ll see how having two kids will be. We&amp;amp;#8217;re one of the fortunate few that has been able to keep it the way it was before. Whenever it does end, if people are able to be more open-minded when it comes to disabilities, then we did our job putting our lives on TV for a few years. We&amp;amp;#8217;re so fortunate. Glamour: Speaking of Zoey, everyone wants to know, what the latest is with her adoption? Bill: We will not have aired anything with us departing for India because we have yet to depart for India. We don&amp;amp;#8217;t have Zoey yet in the real world in real time, but we should be leaving&amp;amp;#8212;if everything goes the way I hope&amp;amp;#8212;the first or second week of October. Everything is pretty much done on that side, we&amp;amp;#8217;re just waiting for permissions, and we have no reason to think that won&amp;amp;#8217;t take more than a couple weeks. Jen: Yes, that is where things are going, so if all goes well, we&amp;amp;#8217;re looking at that time period. We&amp;amp;#8217;re really, really excited. Part of me is feeling so antsy because you&amp;amp;#8217;re just ready, so we&amp;amp;#8217;re trying to roll with the punches. Now it&amp;amp;#8217;s like, we just need to get it done! It&amp;amp;#8217;s all going to work out fine, but I just want to get her home and take care of her. Glamour: Between filming the show, raising a kid, two dogs, a business, a marriage, and press, I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know how you&amp;amp;#8217;re balancing it all. Have you really started to process all the changes? Bill: Yeah, it hasn&amp;amp;#8217;t sunk in yet. Despite the challenges that were originally highlighted on the program, we&amp;amp;#8217;ve led very, very successful and happy lives. I couldn&amp;amp;#8217;t be more thankful for everything, from our careers to finding the love of my life to now having a family and a beautiful home and all the things that have come along because of [the show]. Glamour: What are we not seeing when the cameras go away? What do you and Jen do when you have the house to yourselves? Bill: We&amp;amp;#8217;re curling up in bed watching Homeland or Dexter. My wife isn&amp;amp;#8217;t a big blood and guts fan, but she does like Homeland. We watch The Newsroom, and then I&amp;amp;#8217;m more of a Breaking Bad fan. I had the fortune of meeting Dean Norris at an event last year, and it was kind of funny because I said, &amp;quot;I love your show, congrats on the Emmy,&amp;quot; and he said, &amp;quot;I love what your wife does. I had twins a couple years ago and my twins were in neo and premies,&amp;quot; and it was this mutual admiration for what we do in our lives. We do our thing, we cook dinners, we talk about the ups and downs of work and family and trying to figure out how to make Will the happiest, brightest kid there ever was. He&amp;amp;#8217;s probably the happiest kid I&amp;amp;#8217;ve ever run into. Glamour: What has been the biggest joy from doing the series and what has been the most difficult? Jen: 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, whether it&amp;amp;#8217;s going through the physical challenges or the medical challenges of being little people or the fertility changes and adoption challenges of starting a family. They share their own personal challenges and the fact that watching the show helps them keep moving forward, honestly that&amp;amp;#8217;s what makes the show worthwhile. It&amp;amp;#8217;s a really cool thing and makes me feel happy and proud when that happens. Maybe a downside or challenge is probably being recognized out in public, which for the most part is all positive, but if you&amp;amp;#8217;re in a hurry, or when I&amp;amp;#8217;m in the hospital and running from one patient to another and someone wants to stop and take a picture and I want to be nice and friendly, but in those situations you just don&amp;amp;#8217;t have time. So that&amp;amp;#8217;s the downside. It&amp;amp;#8217;s a good problem to have. We&amp;amp;#8217;re so fortunate to have the following we have. Glamour: Will seems like he&amp;#x27;s the kind of kid that will just approach anyone. Jen: He is very personable, but the challenge is that since he grew up around so many different people, he doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t have stranger anxiety. He&amp;amp;#8217;ll just walk around and grab someone, not because he&amp;amp;#8217;s like, &amp;quot;Hey, how are you?&amp;quot; but because he&amp;amp;#8217;s just going up to someone and grabbing their leg! Glamour: Aside from the obvious, what&amp;#x27;s been the biggest change that you&amp;#x27;ve noticed since becoming a parent? Jen: It has changed me in so many ways. I was so nervous to be a good parent, but I think the thing that changed me personally that I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t expect was how quickly I felt like a mom. It didn&amp;amp;#8217;t take me a long time to feel that connection. Sometimes you wonder, &amp;quot;Will this ever happen to me?&amp;quot; whether it was meeting someone and getting married or having a child, and now that it&amp;amp;#8217;s happened, it&amp;amp;#8217;s the most amazing ever. All of the sudden, I&amp;amp;#8217;m a mom and this is my kid, and he&amp;amp;#8217;s my number one priority. It happened so fast. The minute we laid eyes on him in that room, it was over. Glamour: OK, craziest moment on camera where you thought, I can&amp;amp;#8217;t believe I just did that!? Bill: Oh, I&amp;amp;#8217;ve done stuff on camera that I never expected to have done. The entire nation or the number of viewers that were watching that day saw me go and do my business in a collection room. That was unfortunately, also, very real. [Laughs] That&amp;amp;#8217;s about as close as I hope I&amp;amp;#8217;ll ever get to doing porn. But yeah, that was my debut. Jen: Well, one time we were sitting in the car and kinda got into a tiff thinking about whether or not to build a home, and I thought, &amp;quot;Uh-oh, this could look really bad on television.&amp;quot; Most couples have their debates, and even though it wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t a big fight, it was the most we had ever done on camera. I was like, &amp;quot;Oh my gosh, how&amp;amp;#8217;s it going to turn out?&amp;quot; We kind of forgot the camera was on because it was a car cam, so that made it interesting! Glamour: Have you had any celebs reach out or tweet you saying they are fans of the show?\uFFFD Bill: Not really. We live a pretty straight-up kind of lifestyle. We&amp;amp;#8217;ve done some cool things like the upfronts, and people are always very complimentary. My wife met Morgan Freeman, who was her dream guy to meet. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t think he watched our program, but he had heard about Jennifer being a physician. So when he met her, because he&amp;amp;#8217;s an older guy and his knees don&amp;amp;#8217;t really bend, he couldn&amp;amp;#8217;t really kneel down to say hi to her. He had to bend down at his hips, and he kind of came down like a crane to say hi to Jennifer. And then he glared over to me, and said, &amp;quot;So this is the guy I have to watch out for?&amp;quot; I&amp;amp;#8217;m like, &amp;quot;I think Morgan Freeman just hit on my wife a little bit! That&amp;amp;#8217;s kinda cool!&amp;quot; And then I joked, which I don&amp;amp;#8217;t think he got the joke, or at least he didn&amp;amp;#8217;t laugh at it&amp;amp;#8212;but we were at the start of the beginning of the panels for TLC that day, so I said, &amp;quot;Hey, thanks for opening up for us!&amp;quot; Glamour: Time for some reader questions! Jen, after Zoey&amp;#x27;s adoption, do you think you&amp;#x27;d like to have a third kid down the line? Jen: [Laughs] That&amp;amp;#8217;s a fantastic question. Our goal was two, and I think we&amp;amp;#8217;re going to be very happy with two. We&amp;amp;#8217;re not looking for a third, and you never say never because who knows what will happen. We didn&amp;amp;#8217;t expect Zoey so soon right after Will, so if the right thing comes up, we&amp;amp;#8217;ll see, but we&amp;amp;#8217;re not looking for a third! Glamour: How do you keep your love life spicy with a camera crew and a toddler? Jen: 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! Glamour: OK, Bill, it&amp;#x27;s football season. When will we see you and Will attend your first football game? Bill: I&amp;amp;#8217;m hoping to get Will to a game sometime soon. I would love it to be the Super Bowl, so if you guys have a box, I&amp;amp;#8217;d be more than happy to go. [Laughs] And of course since it&amp;amp;#8217;s in New York next year that makes it almost impossible that the Giants will actually go because I don&amp;amp;#8217;t think many, if any, teams have played in their city for the Super Bowl. I&amp;amp;#8217;d love to break ground though! I might cave in and take Will to a Texans game since their stadium is rather close to us. An all-new episode of The Little Couple airs tonight on TLC. What do you love most about the show? Special Thanks: Niki Kazakos at TLC; Bill Klein and Jen Arnold...guys, come to L.A. soon! Photos: TLC; Dr. Jen Arnold and Bill Klein/The Little Couple"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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