As the happily married stars of TLC's The Little Couple, Dr. Jen Arnold and Bill Klein
have been a reality TV staple since 2009, along with their kids Will and Zoey. But even
though cameras capture much of their relationship, there's always more to the story!
It's not often that anyone's love story begins at 10 years old, but that's what happened
for Bill and Jen, who first met each other when they were recovering in the hospital,
as kids. Bill told Glamour,
"I used to do laps around the hallways, and I was happy as could be. I was cut out of
my cast, I was sitting up, listening to my Walkman, my parents were 200 miles away, so
I couldn't get in trouble […] so I cruised into [Jen's] room."
Having been on painkillers at the time, Jen doesn't remember all of it as well, but she
said,
"All the details he's telling you, when he first told me, I was like, 'No, you didn't.'
Then he started rattling it off and it was all right."
While the couple first met as kids, they didn't trade numbers or become pen pals at that time.
Instead, they met later, as adults. Jen told the Tampa Bay Times,
"Officially, [we met] online on a dating site for little people."
But this meeting occurred after a near-miss encounter when Bill and Jen were in college.
They each worked with the same mentor, just one year apart. Jen recalled,
"When I was there, Dr. Kopits and his nurse practitioner kept telling me, 'You know, I
want you to meet this Billy Klein. He wants to go into medicine like you, he's super smart.'
I remember saying, 'Yes, that sounds right up my alley, smart, geeky, a little person
like me.'"
When Jen and Bill finally did get the chance to get to know one another, it was clear that
they were meant to be.
"We waited so long to find our soulmate…"
"Once we found each other, it was like, ok I'm never lettin' go."
After Jen and Bill began dating, they soon decided to take their relationship to the
next level. When the couple started planning their wedding, Jen knew exactly what she wanted.
She shared with the Tampa Bay Times,
"I'm a Florida girl and I really wanted a beach wedding, even though we lived in New
York. Luckily I had my family here in Florida to help make the plans. […] We ended up
getting married April 12, 2008, at St. Mary's downtown and had the reception at the Don
CeSar. This is the place I love so it made the most sense."
The duo celebrated their 13th anniversary in 2021, which Jen commemorated by posting
to Instagram,
"I am so lucky to get to spend this thing called life by your side."
If you're a dedicated viewer of The Little Couple, then you've surely seen Jen and Bill
celebrate numerous special occasions over the years. That includes birthdays, anniversaries,
and other milestone events, all of which are filmed for their fans.
"Surprise!"
But as it turns out, what you see on the show might not be the family's actual celebration.
That's because Jen and Bill strive to preserve some of their private milestones, which means
they often celebrate important events twice. Jen explained to 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."
"How has the TV show changed your lives?"
"Amazing, we have Ferraris, chateaus…"
"You wish."
In addition to the perks of being a reality star — millions of followers around the
world and the platform to amplify your voice — Bill and Jen have become master communicators,
not only with their fans, but with each other. And it's something they attribute to their
show. Bill explained to HuffPost,
"On occasion, we have to expand upon a topic that we otherwise would have skimmed across
because of time, because our days and our jobs are busy. It gives us a chance to communicate
in more detail."
"Having each other and knowing that we're in it together, um, is probably the biggest
stress relief. Would you agree?"
"I would agree."
Bill and Jen also faithfully abide by some relationship advice that many couples could
probably agree with. Jen shared,
"[We] never go to bed angry. Once, we did, and we both woke up in the middle of the night
miserable."
As fans are well aware, Bill and Jen are one busy couple. They both have full-time jobs,
they dutifully parent their two children together, and they've starred in a hit reality show
for over a decade. So how do they make it all work? Jen says they have a good system
in place. She told the Tampa Bay Times,
"Bill and I do share things pretty darn well. We set limits and I also divide and conquer
really well with my husband."
"Bill's always been and will always be my biggest supporter."
In addition to splitting household chores, Jen says she and Bill play to their strengths
when it comes to delegating the rest of the duties. While of course Jen takes care of
any immediate medical needs within the family, she added,
"[Bill] takes care of all things finance because he's a business guy. He takes care of the
contracts dealing with the production company."
Bill and Jen have been married for about as long as they've been on TV, having just tied
the knot when they started filming. During that time, the pair has been through a lot
together, including becoming parents and moving several times. They've also gotten to know
each other so well that their deeply authentic connection actually surprised Jen. She shared
with HuffPost,
"No one prepared me for how comfortable you are in front of someone. Like being self-conscious
about how I look? That's not something you think about. It's amazing how close you can
get."
Jen and Bill have total faith and trust in each other, though Jen appears to be amused
that so much of their lives is taped for posterity. She said,
"It's funny knowing every bachelor party he's ever been to has been recorded. There's always
someone watching and I have eyes making sure he's being good."
In addition to being hard-working parents who also film a reality TV show, Bill and
Jen decided to knock another item off of their bucket list; published authors. So, in 2016,
they made that dream happen when they penned their book, Life Is Short (No Pun Intended):
Love, Laughter, and Learning to Enjoy Every Moment. Bill explained the reason behind the
venture, telling Glamour,
"The idea was to connect the dots for people that knew us, and obviously we wanted the
viewership [of our show] to read the book to explain why we are the way we are today."
But not only were they writing it all down for fans, they were busy building a legacy
for their family. Jen and Bill want their children to read the book when they're older,
with Bill adding,
"The other part from a legacy perspective. I would like for my kids to take a couple
of notes from our pages and maybe say, 'You know what? My dad got bullied too. And my
mom got bullied also. We saw obstacles in their lives and they turned out to be fine.'"
Jen and Bill went on to publish a second book two years later, entitled, Think Big: Overcoming
Obstacles with Optimism.
"You really can overcome things that may seem insurmountable. Take it one step at a time."
In what fans witnessed as a long and challenging journey, Jen and Bill sought to grow their
family and have children of their own. Initially, they thought that surrogacy would be the best
avenue to make this happen, and they ultimately worked with a woman named Cindy to make their
dreams come true. Sadly, she miscarried after becoming pregnant for the first time. And
while the news was devastating, Jen remained determined to press on. As she wrote in their
book Think Big,
"I knew right away not to give up. We had only tried once. We don't give up that easily."
Unfortunately, Cindy miscarried again after becoming pregnant for a second time, which
was understandably an enormous setback for the hopeful parents. Jen told Radar Online,
"Keeping the faith felt a little more difficult for Bill and me."
"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."
Fortunately, the duo were finally able to add children to their family thanks to adoption.
And proud mama Jen says she wouldn't have it any other way. She shared,
"If you stay the course and are optimistic, you might find yourself seeing joy in your
hands. Joy rushed over us in ways we hadn't expected and surely couldn't have imagined
so soon after our experiences with surrogacy."
A loving example of the power of family, the Little Couple finally brought their two children
home, in 2013. They were able to adopt Will from China and Zoey from India, all within
one year. Naturally, Jen and Bill were absolutely delighted to become parents. Jen revealed
in an interview with The Wrap,
"It's all been positive, I mean, a few crazy people, but mostly comments on how crazy it
is to be adopting two kids at once, but we are. That being said, we're happy crazy."
"You are as American as french fries and a cheeseburger, dude."
While it certainly wasn't by design that Will and Zoey came into their lives at nearly the
same moment, the couple sees it as destiny. Jen added,
"It wasn't that we intended to, or tried to, adopt two children at one time. It's just
how the stars aligned, really."
While adopting two kids at once would be an enormous task for any new parent, Jen was
confident they'd make it work — which they have. She shared,
"It's a blessing that we'll figure out a way to handle."
Even though Bill and Jen had decided that adoption was the best way to grow their family,
just after bringing Will home and waiting for Zoey's adoption to be finalized, Jen made
a surprising discovery. Bill recalled in their book, Think Big,
"[Jen said] 'I'm pregnant' […] [in] complete and utter disbelief. After going through two
years of fertility treatments and surrogacy followed by miscarriages, this was unexpected,
to say the least!"
But sadly, for as much as Bill and Jen would have welcomed a biological child, they found
out from their doctor that the pregnancy would not be viable. Still, for whatever grief the
news might have caused them, Bill's inherent optimism triumphed in the end. He said of
his family,
"I will see Jen's beautiful smile and Will's never-ending joy and Zoey enthusiastically
hopping and skipping along and just think, 'When did I win the Powerball of life?'"
While Jen and Bill are happily married, they both retained their own last names. But in
a funny subversion of traditional gender roles, there are some people who presume they share
Jen's last name, not Bill's. He told a story about it, explaining to HuffPost,
"I was at Restoration Hardware and the lady came up and said, 'Oh my god, I was hoping
I'd meet you guys, it's very nice to meet you Bill Arnold.' It's actually a running
joke now [since] it's happened so often that people just presume that my last name is Arnold."
But, not surprisingly, good-natured Bill isn't bothered at all when people assume that his
last name is Arnold instead of Klein. He says,
"It's perfectly fine by me, there's no ego or harm done."
With all that Jen and Bill have going on in their lives, you might wonder when they make
time for each other, just the two of them. And, as it turns out, they intentionally do
exactly that every single day, even if it's in smaller moments. Bill explained in a chat
with People magazine,
"When you have a busy life, particularly two toddlers that can take up all your attention
and energy during the day […] you make sure to have something at night. It could be a
glass of wine after you put the kids to bed, watching a TV show, making sure you give at
least 10 to 15 minutes of your time to each other."
No matter how hectic life gets for this couple, it seems like making their marriage a priority
is truly the secret to their success.
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