Lisa Whelchel’s grandchildren lovingly name her “Cocomama,” however she will not be sharing with them how the nickname originated “for some time.”
The Information of Life alum, who now hosts MeTV’s Collector’s Name, remembers to Yahoo Leisure being given the title throughout a household journey to Europe after she tried — and overindulged in — hashish choices at an Amsterdam espresso store.
Whelchel — finest recognized for portraying ’80s TV icon Blair Warner — remembers backpacking throughout Europe together with her household. In Amsterdam, they stayed in a hostel referred to as Cocomama whereas they explored the town.
“We went to this espresso store, which I did not know that espresso outlets weren’t actually espresso outlets in Amsterdam,” she says with amusing in regards to the companies, the place clients purchase and smoke marijuana or eat cannabis-infused edibles. “We determined: OK, certain. We’ll try this. We’ll have some. When in Amsterdam!
“We ended up having some house cake as a result of I attempted to smoke a joint and I simply coughed up a lung,” the Texas native continues. “The proprietor of the cafe mentioned … ‘Simply eat slightly bit,’ however after all, my daughter Clancy [Cauble, 30] and I — and we have been all adults, it ought to be famous — mentioned: ‘Nicely, I do not really feel something. I would like some extra.’ We did the beginner mistake!”
Whelchel, who turns 60 this month, says they have been left “paranoid,” apart from Clancy’s then-boyfriend/now-husband JJ Orantes, “who was capable of maintain it collectively. I stored saying, ‘Should you can simply get us again to Cocomama! Simply get us again to Cocomama!'”
Per week after their misadventure, Clancy and JJ grew to become engaged in Paris and Whelchel instructed him, “‘Nicely, you do not have to name me ‘mother,’ however I do not need you calling me Mrs. Cauble anymore, so consider a reputation.’ So he determined to name me Cocomama to commemorate our fantastic — and horrible — expertise collectively.”
The title caught — and has prolonged to the youthful family members. She’s now a smitten grandma of two and, sure, they name her Cocomama.
“We can’t be telling the grandkids how the title originated for some time,” the previous baby star, additionally from the Mickey Mouse Membership within the Nineteen Seventies, quips.
Whelchel’s marriage to the daddy of her three kids — additionally together with son Tucker, 32, and daughter Haven, 31 — ended a decade in the past and he or she discovered love once more with Pete Harris, a Nashville psychologist. They have been legally married in December 2019 with plans for a March 2020 wedding ceremony, however COVID interrupted. Their long-awaited reception will lastly happen in July — and it’s anticipated to be a fun-filled, household weekend with a nod to Survivor, the truth sequence she competed on in 2012 after her divorce as a private problem.
“It was going to be throughout COVID — after which after all we needed to wait — after which my son was planning to get married, so we clearly did not wish to have competing weddings,” she says.
As for what they’ve deliberate, “We’re renting an enormous Airbnb in central California,” with simply household, “and we’re having a recreation event,” she says. “We’re very aggressive household. We love video games. So we’re having three days of a couple of dozen totally different video games — and Survivor sort of impediment course video games as properly — with a championship. Then we’ll match a celebration in there someplace.”
Whether or not it is an Amsterdam misadventure or a Survivor wedding ceremony reception, Whelchel says, “Nicely, I do like to expertise life. Some [experiences] are extra enjoyable — and a few are extra scary — than others,” she laughs. “However I am at all times simply glad that I stay life as out loud as potential.”
Extra of our dialog with Whelchel — reminiscing about The Information of Life 35 years after it resulted in Could 1988 — will be discovered right here.
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