The Little Couple: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Jen Arnold And Bill Klein’s Relationship

TLC’s The Little Couple has endeared fans for years and it isn’t hard to see why. Stars Jen Arnold and Bill Klein are one of reality TV’s most likeable and relateable couples. Their show isn’t about stirring up drama, it is truly about their day-to-day lives as a couple and as parents, and of course as little people, and they are so down-to-earth fans have come to feel like they truly know them. The pair have no problem being their fun-loving selves on camera and in interviews and in the end just make fans love them even more, but there is no match for the love the two have for each other. Of course, a lot of their relationship is show on The Little Couple, but there is always more to know! Here are 10 things you didn’t know about Jen Arnold and Bill Klein’s relationship:

10. The Store and Fan Encounters

Aside from their busy individual schedules, which includes Jen’s work as a prenatal doctor and medical director of the Simulation Center at Texas Children’s Hospital, Jen and Bill also own and operate Rocky & Maggie’s Pet Boutique. Now, the couple have revealed the store is a place where fans come to seek them out. “I’d be in the store doing inventory, and someone would come in wanting to talk to me about their infertility stuff,” Bill revealed. While the store does well, the couple admitted it would be beneficial if all the people who came in to try to see The Little Couple stars bought something as well. “My mother-in-law in particular does try to enforce that. She does it with a smile, like, ‘Do you want a hat or something?’ We’ve gotten a lot of people that are like, ‘We don’t have a dog, but we were hoping to see Bill and Jen!’ That’s kind of funny,” Bill explained.

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9. How Did They Meet?

Bill Klein and Jen Arnold have one of those love stories where it seems they were destined to be together. As fans know, the amazing couple have stated that they met online through a dating site specifically for little people, but years later they revealed they had actually met long before. In their book “Life Is Short (No Pun Intended),” Bill detailed the time he met Jen when he was 10 years old and they were both in the same hospital after undergoing surgeries for their skeletal dysplasia. While Bill remembered the event clearly, Jen actually had no idea. “I was on major narcotics and getting a blood transfusion. But 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,” she explained.

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8. Getting Together

After their initial and very brief meeting as children, the two actually had many times where their lives crossed paths or almost did, making their story seem even more like fate. “Our doctor and nurse practitioner actually tried to set us up a few times, believe it or not. Both Bill and I were interested in going into medicine and we both shadowed our surgeon, but I never got to meet him because we did it at different times. They also told Bill about me, and we still never connected,” Jen explained. Ten years later on Jen’s 32nd birthday the pair officially met after meeting via datealittle.com, but even that was hard work. Bill said that he wrote her when he found her on the site, but Jen hadn’t paid for her registration so she couldn’t read his message. Two months later Jen finally paid for using the site and wrote him back and, after a pick up line thrown out by Jen, the two began talking on the phone. “After about a month and a half of calls, she fell asleep on the phone one night — at that point I decided she was too comfortable or too bored. Either way, I needed to close the deal here because I was in love with her at that point,” Bill sweetly stated.

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7. First Date

For their first date, Bill hopped on a plane and flew to Pittsburgh to meet Jen cause she was living there at the time and they had their first date at Starbucks where they talked so long and had such a connection they decided to continue the date and go for dinner. After deciding on sushi, the pair got so deep into conversation they didn’t even touch their food and the chef even had to ask if something was wrong with their meal, but the pair had just forgotten to eat because they were having such a good time talking to one another. After their dinner date, they had a romantic first kiss. “When we left, we went up to the top of Emerald View in Pittsburgh; you can overlook the city there. I had my first kiss with Jennifer on top of that mountain, and that was that.”

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6. The Wedding and Vow Renewal

In 2008, the pair made it official by finally getting married after two years of dating. Jen and Bill celebrated their big day with a ceremony at a Catholic church in Arnold’s hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. “The event and the honeymoon were amazing whirlwinds that felt like gifts given to us for being persistent and never giving up,” Jen said of their big day. Six years and two kids later, Bill then planned a big surprise for his wife when he set up a surprise vow renewal for their six-year anniversary. Bill planned the whole thing on a beach in Galveston, Texas, where they were surrounded by 50 of their closest family and friends. “This time around it was about taking care of Jennifer, and even though she found out about it last minute, she came up with better vows than the ones I wrote,” Bill said. He even fully planned out a reception afterwards that included all of Arnold’s favorite snacks and a dinner of lobster, crab and shrimp, not to mention he also helped create signature cocktails to honor the couple and their vow renewal day.

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5. All The Little Things

One of the things that fans love most about Jen and Bill is how truly perfect they seem together. Through the good and bad, they always stay positive and never hesitate to show their love and affection. When asked what most attracted Bill to Jen when he first met her he said, “It was everything but her driving! Kidding! […] But her smile — that’s probably the thing I love most about her. Aside from the fact that she’s a successful woman, doesn’t give up, and is outgoing and personable, she’s got this incredible smile. It’s real, and it just lights up a room. It never gets old.” Meanwhile Jen can’t help but appreciate all the little things about Bill too. “There are many things, but the things that stand out are: his sense of humor, his baby blue eyes, and when I first talked to Bill on the phone before we met, I didn’t know a lot about him, but the first time we talked, I felt like I had known him my entire life. I twas the strangest thing, but it was awesome. I told him I could talk to him forever because it felt like I knew him forever.”

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4. Becoming Parents

After a few years together, Bill and Jen decided they wanted to become parents and began the process of implanting their embryo into a surrogate. Unfortunately the couple’s surrogate miscarried twice, and then the unthinkable happened when Jen became pregnant herself. Unfortunately tragedy struck again when the pregnancy turned out to be non-viable and triggered cancer in Jen’s uterus. Amid her brave fight with cancer, the pair didn’t give up dreams of parenthood and adopted their first child, a son named Will from China in 2013, and later happily added to their family with the adoption of their daughter Zoey. Although both were nervous about becoming parents, it is obvious they are naturals and they wouldn’t change their family for their world. “All of the sudden, I’m a mom and this is my kid, and he’s my number one priority. It happened so fast. The minute we laid eyes on him in that room, it was over,” Jen said of becoming a mom with the adoption of Will.

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3. Date Nights

Through some truly tough times and many really happy times, Jen and Bill have remained one of TV’s most solid couples and they say their secret is to always make time for date nights whether it is alone or with the kids. “Our goal is once a month. I knew once a week was not reasonable or practical. When we are together, it needs to be good, quality time. We’re not just in front of the TV. We’re doing stuff and that helps,” Jen said.

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2. On-Camera Therapy?

After years of having their own television show, Bill and Jen should be used to seeing their relationship on TV, but Bill says for him it is still helpful. “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’t pay attention to that when you’re in the moment talking to each other. When the cameras aren’t around, I’m sure it happens, but we’re just not aware of it. But I enjoy seeing that because it is an interesting perspective to see. You and your spouse interacting in a way where you’re smiling all the time and happy and all that sort of stuff. It’s nice to see that we’re truly happy and putting a smile on each other’s face. I get a little giddy when I see those things,” he told Glamour.

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1. Behind the Scenes

The best part of Jen and Bill’s reality TV show is that it actually is real. The couple really are like so many others, and in fact their life doesn’t change that much when the cameras aren’t around, they just enjoy a little more quality time together. “We’re curling up in bed watching Homeland or Dexter. My wife isn’t a big blood or guts fan, but she does like Homeland. We watch The Newsroom, and then I’m more of a Breaking Bad fan […] We do our thing. We cook dinners, we talk about the ups and downs of work and family,” Bill said of their time together off camera.