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 there — 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 St. Pete Beach and I came to St. 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 St. 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 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, y'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 shooed 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 soulmate…"
"Once we found each other, it was like, ok I'm never lettin' 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 their 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 Zoey.
"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 & Beyond
and a little girl who was probably about 7 or 8 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 watch 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 don't tell me I don't like it. I do." "You're good."
"I know."
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 re-shooting 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.
"Look! Those are coconuts."
"Yep, lots of palm trees."
"Everything is growing. Look at that." 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 to 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 someone at the door?"
"Yep."
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 Zoey,
they are even more high risk because they have a pretty 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 D.C. 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 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 and makes me feel happy and proud when that happens."
"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 a son. I mean,
I almost feel like I don't deserve it."
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