EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Little People, Big World's Matt Roloff On Divorce Rumors & The Gosselins
Sep. 29 2010, Published 9:20 a.m. ET
As one of television’s favorite families prepares to say farewell, the star and patriarch of TLC’s Little People, Big World is setting the record straight from rumors of his reported death to claims that his marriage is headed for divorce. In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, Roloff says that despite six great seasons on the air, he’s “ready” for his reality television time to end.
Watch the video on RadarOnline.com
“I think the word is relieved. It’s been six long years with cameras in my house,” he said. “TLC is by far the best company to do a reality show with, but the process itself is grueling. It’s stressful. I’m ready for it to be over.”
Critics claim the end of the show coincides with a breakdown in Roloff’s marriage to wife Amy -- something he laughs off.
“Amy and I are still sleeping in the same room, in the same bed,” Roloff joked, adding, “With all the goodies that come with that!”
Roloff also explained what really happened at the end of season 5, which left audiences wondering about the fate of the 49-year-old father of four after cameras caught him falling to the floor in an apparent heart attack. Internet reports soon announced he had died.
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“I’m not dead, as you can clearly see!” Roloff told RadarOnline.com. “I saw the screening when the episode was complete and I saw that they showed me fainting and falling to the ground. I suffer from vertigo and I had a dizzy spell that day. I don’t even remember it happening, but I hit the floor.
“It’s not the first time I’ve fainted, it was just the first time they caught it on camera.”
Roloff, who suffers from a bad left shoulder, admits he can see now how the combination of grabbing his left arm and falling to the ground sparked speculation that he’d had a heart attack.
“Grabbing your left arm and falling down is a bad thing, I guess,” he laughed.
While he was abundant with praise for TLC and the way it treated his family over the last six seasons, Roloff was candid about the stress a reality show can put on a marriage.
Jon and Kate Gosselin battled a painfully public divorce after five seasons of letting cameras into their home on their reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8. The couple had been married ten years.
“The reality business is not for the faint at heart. Amy and I both met Jon and Kate when they were together, we broke bread with them,” Roloff revealed.
“Jon and Kate were a little younger than Amy and I and we could see then the fragility that was developing. Amy and I have been through the exact same thing but I think we had just enough maturity to realize what it was that we had signed up for and we decided to muscle through it.”
The final season of Little People, Big World is currently airing Mondays on TLC.
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