-Our next guest is a talented actress
and "New York Times" best-selling author.
Her latest book, "Ali's Well That Ends Well:
Tales of Desperation and a Little Inspiration,"
is available May 10th.
Please welcome back to the show
our friend Ali Wentworth, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
It's nice to have you back, Ali. -It's so nice to be here.
-How are you? -I'm great.
I'm actually wearing my teenage daughter's prom shoes,
and they're a little small.
-Really?
-So I'm so happy I got across the walk.
-Is that a situation where you
have to ask permission to wear them?
-No. She's at Brown University right now,
so she doesn't even know that I'm wearing them.
-Okay, gotcha. -Yeah.
-And I'm assuming you might even be
paying for Brown University,
so how dare she tell you what shoes you can wear?
-That's right. -Yeah.
-This is first semester right here.
Yeah.
-So are you -- I would imagine having a daughter in college --
is it drawing a distinction between what
college was like when you were there?
-Let me be very clear about what college was --
Well, first of all, going to college was --
I was in a beat-up Honda.
I brought my stinky pillow from home, a toothbrush,
maybe some birth control, and a suitcase,
and that was it.
My parents didn't go with me.
We didn't go to Bed bath & Beyond
and get a shower caddy and all this...
-Yeah.
-My daughters have Pinterest boards
of what they want their dorm room to look like.
I'm like, "Are you..."
It's like 5x7 underground.
You've got some, you know,
escaped-convict roommate.
There's nothing you can do about it.
-Yeah.
-Like, we are spoiling our children.
It should be uncomfortable and hard.
-Yeah. It's true.
It's -- I will say,
I'm pretty sure I was sent with a shower caddy.
And then, when my parents did visit,
it was, like, still in its plastic wrapper,
and they were like, "Have you not --"
They were like, "How have you been caddying --
How have you been caddying your shampoo?"
-How do you carry your shampoo into the shower?
No, she -- "I have to get, like, Nike shower shoes."
No, you don't.
There's no fungus that's going to take over your feet.
-Yeah. And kids could use a little fungus.
-Well, I think boys can. -Boys can use a little fungus.
-Boys can use some little fungus.
-I mean, I can put my feet anywhere now.
Literally anywhere. -Oh, I see. Yes.
-And I'm totally -- I'm fine.
-Yes. Yes.
You're not one of those guys, though,
that is bare feet on an airplane that does this thing.
-No, absolutely not. -Okay.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would never.
-No, you wouldn't.
-My feet are not meant to be seen.
-I see. -Yeah.
-Yeah. Mine aren't usually, but I didn't have
any good shoes to go with this outfit, so...
-What was -- What inspired you to write this book?
It seems like maybe the pandemic was a tipping point to --
It's not your first book. You've written others.
-I have. It was.
I got COVID very early on, in March,
back when the only photos of this global pandemic
were people on a ventilator, so it was a little scary.
-It was a very scary time. -It was.
And my husband, George Stephanopoulos --
-They should say his name like that on the news,
like, when they introduce him.
-"This week with George Stephanopoulos."
-Yeah.
-Oh, I'm going to be divorced tomorrow.
-Yeah. -So, I got it early on.
We actually took a picture that we put on "GMA"
just to basically say, you know, "I know we're all terrified.
Ali's actually at home."
So back then, when you quarantined,
I quarantined for three weeks
in a little room, and it got kind of gross.
But I could hear my daughters downstairs.
And I thought to myself,
"How am I going to grow teenagers in a pandemic?"
You know, they're supposed to be out
robbing liquor stores and getting knocked up.
-Yeah.
-And, instead, they're just in the house with me and George,
and that's -- that is going to stunt their growth.
-That's not living. -That's not --
They're Stephanopoulos girls.
So, I was thinking about the book, and I thought,
"I'm going to write a book, originally,
about how do we help our children through this?"
That was sort of the impetus for it.
And then what really got me to write the book was,
I had such a high fever for a few days
and I watched all, you know,
5,000 seasons of "Mad Men," but, like, on a loop.
Like, the next episode would just automatically start.
So for about three days straight,
I watched "Mad Men," and I was so delirious
in my fever that I -- This is real.
I thought I was married to Don Draper.
-Okay, yeah. -And he was cheating on me.
So, George would come and, like, all masked up and, like,
put my tray in with some kind of weird broth he cooked up.
And I would scream at him like,
"I know you're sleeping with that French secretary!"
-Yeah, yeah.
-And George's reaction was like, "Oh, it's just crazy Ali."
-Yeah, yeah. -And it got worse and worse.
And then, at one point, he came in again
with the mask and the gloves to bring me some sad
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.
And he was like, "You know, I love you,
and I think you're getting better.
Your oxygen levels are, you know, higher."
And I was like, "I'm gonna --
I am taking my percentage of the Draper Industry."
You know. And, so, that's what scared George the most --
not that I had COVID, but that I firmly believed that he --
-Because everybody says loss of smell is bad,
but I think thinking you're Betty Draper is worse...
-Oh, yeah. -...as a symptom.
-It was. -Yeah.
-The only good part about that delirium dream was that
I had huge knockers and I was drinking a lot of martinis.
And there was a fun part of it,
but it took me a while, even today,
to realize that George is not sleeping around.
Or maybe he is.
Maybe you know something I don't.
-Well, you did, like a lot --
You did have him at home during the pandemic.
He was doing "GMA" from the house.
I -- You know, I think that maybe too much
has been put on the people who are doing the shows.
It must have been a lot to live with people
who are doing a show.
-Yes. Thank you. -You're welcome.
-Thank you for -- Thank you.
I mean, yes, he pays the mortgage,
but it's also really hard for me.
So, during COVID, George Stephanopoulos
was doing "GMA" from our dining room,
which is just incredibly difficult,
because you have a wife upstairs screaming,
"I know you're cheating on me."
-Yeah, that's not great.
-And you have two teenage daughters
that are also like, "Daddy stole my makeup,"
because there's no makeup artist in our dining room.
And we have two very yappy dogs that if you even fart,
they start barking like crazy.
So, he's -- you know, has his boxers and then a jacket and tie
with, like, the ABC logo behind him.
And he's got a handful of treats, and any --
You know, they go like, "Breaking news."
[ Vocalizes dramatic music ] "ABC breaking news."
He was so afraid the dogs were going to start barking
that he just kept throwing treats during all of "GMA."
So, that man was a rock star.
I mean, the plates he was juggling --
-So after, like, a big news week, were your dog's super-fat?
-Well, our dachshund is morbidly obese.
-Yeah.
-And, by the way, I packed on some pounds during COVID,
as -- By the way, a lot of data says that women --
we internalized and we ate and got heavy,
and men were like, "I'm going to go use this time
to go bike 5,000 miles," so they all got in shape.
I went to see my doctor after the two years of quarantine
and eating a lot of Fudgie the Whale cakes,
which is the cover of my book,
because that was our coping mechanism.
And my doctor called me back at 10:30 at night,
and I said, "Hi, Dr. Kurth."
And she's like, "Ali, your cholesterol is 336."
And I was like, "Yes! What does that mean?"
And she goes like, "You're going to die.
So what have you been eating during quarantine?"
I said, "Well, like, what everybody else has been eating,
a baguette dipped in cheese and ice cream."
And she was like, "Yeah, no more, no more."
I still am, but I'm taking a statin.
-I think everyone --
Based on what you've said tonight,
everyone will want to read even more about
Ali's trip through a pandemic.
Ali Wentworth, everybody.
"Ali's Well That Ends Well" is available May 10th.
We'll be right back with more "Late Night."