Lisa Whelchel's grandchildren affectionately call her “Kokomama,” but she won't share with them how the nickname originated “for a while.”
facts of life alumwho now hosts MeTV call of collector Yahoo Entertainment is being named during a family trip to Europe when he tried — and was offered — cannabis at an Amsterdam coffee shop.
Whelchel — best known for portraying '80s TV icon Blair Warner — recalls backpacking across Europe with his family. In Amsterdam, they stayed at a hostel called Kokomama while they explored the city.
“We went to this coffee shop, which I didn't know was coffee shops in Amsterdam weren't really coffee shops,” she says with a laugh about businesses where customers buy and smoke marijuana Or eat cannabis-infused edibles. “We decided: OK, sure. We'll do it. We'll have something. When in Amsterdam!
The Texas native continued, “We ended up having some space cake because I tried smoking a joint and I just coughed up a lung.” “The owner of the cafe said … ‘just eat a little bit,' but of course, my daughter Clancy [Cauble, 30] And I – and we were all adults, it should be noted – said: ‘Well, I don't feel anything. I want some more.' We made a rookie mistake!”
Whelchel, who turns 60 this month, says Clancy's then-boyfriend/now-husband J.J. For Kokomama! Just get us back to Kokomama!'”
A week after their escapade, Clancy and JJ get engaged in Paris, and Wellshell tells her, “‘Well, you don't have to call me ‘Mom,' but I don't want you to call me Mrs. Cobble, so Think of a name. So they decided to call me KokoMama to commemorate our wonderful — and terrifying — experience together.
The name stuck – and has been extended to younger members of the family. She is now a doting grandmother of two and yes, they call her Kokomama.
“We won't tell the grandchildren how the name originated for a while,” also former child star mickey mouse club In the 1970s, quips.
Whelchel marries father of her three children – including son Tucker, 32, and Betty Haven, 31 — broke up a decade ago and found love again with Nashville psychologist Pete Harris. They were legally married in December 2019 with plans for a March 2020 wedding, but were disrupted by COVID. Their long-awaited reception will finally take place in July – and it's expected to be a fun, family weekend SurvivorThe reality series she competed in after her divorce in 2012 personal challenge,
“It was going to happen during COVID — and then of course we had to wait — and then my son was planning on getting married, so we obviously didn't want to have competing weddings,” she says.
As they plan, “we're renting a big Airbnb in central California,” with just the family, “and we're having a sports tournament,” she says. “We're a very competitive family. We love sports. So we have three days of about a dozen different sports — and Survivor Obstacle course game too – with a championship. Then we'll celebrate somewhere there.”
whether it's Amsterdam Audacity or a Survivor wedding reception, Whelchel says, “Well, I love to experience life. Some [experiences] There are more fun — and some more scary — than others,” she laughs. “But I'm always happy that I live life as loud as possible.”
More of our conversation with Whelchel – reminiscing about the facts of life 35 years after he finished in May 1988 – can be found here,