Henry Winkler Says He Stopped Daughter Zoe From Doing Reality TV With Kim Kardashian
Henry Winkler’s daughter Zoe Winkler revealed that she was once in contention to be the Bachelorette—and almost starred in a reality show alongside Kim Kardashian.
Turns out that reality TV isn’t for everyone.
Henry Winkler‘s daughter Zoe Winkler almost entered the world of reality television on two different occasions, but the Happy Days alum stopped her from doing it both times.
“Do you remember when I was in the running to be the Bachelorette?” Zoe asked her father on the Nov. 20 episode of her podcast What In The Winkler?!, to which he replied, “Oh, my goodness. And we put a stop to that and only for your protection.”
His 44-year-old daughter went on to recall that she started filming for Quarter-Life Crisis—a reality show that never came to fruition—alongside longtime pals Kim Kardashian and Sarah Howard, who has been a longtime friend of the Kardashian family.
“I’ll never forget Matt Hanna [an executive producer],” Zoe said. “He worked at VH1 at the time, he flew out to LA and did a sizzle reel of us. And I don’t even think like I mentioned it to you… I was living at home at the time because I was just done with college. He came to the house and you met him outside.”
“I did,” Henry added. “I said, ‘It is so lovely that you’re here, I can suggest some really good restaurants, [but] my daughter is not doing your show.'”
“It was so not the right thing for you to do in your life,” he said later in the podcast. “It would have just perverted your trajectory. I really believe that.”
Zoe—who shares three sons with husband Robert Reinis—noted that Kim went on to “become the most famous person in the world,” and she ultimately pursued her true passion of teaching.
“I became a teacher,” she gushed, “which was the best job and what I always truly wanted to do.”
And Henry, 79, insisted that she was “born” to go down that path.
“I’m not kidding, [it’s] not because I’m your dad,” he explained. “I’m just objectively telling you I saw it happen. If I were a young parent, at the time that I saw the way you parent and the way you taught, I would have stolen your technique and used it as my go-to.”
And, while Zoe agreed with her father’s assessment, she did note that she had a fortuitous full-circle moment years after Henry turned down Quarter-Life Crisis on her behalf.
“When I was teaching at this preschool, after you had sent Matt Hanna home after he’d had a whole crew come out and shoot a sizzle of us at Fred Segal,” she revealed, “Matt Hanna walked in as a parent in my class. He had three daughters…and I taught all three.”
