Holly Robinson Peete: Redefining The Word “Never" 45:59

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If you're a parent, stop and listen to this episode. Actually, everyone should stop and listen to this episode. My dear friend and actress, Holly Robinson-Pete, gives us the real raw deal about struggling as a parent, learning to trust your instincts, and teaches us all how to be an advocate for our children. This episode is an important one. Happy listening.

When we got that diagnosis, Rodney was on denial streak and I was on whoop somebody's ass avenue. Somebody got to cue me or do I cue myself? Cue yourself. Okay. Hey everyone, it's Kelly Ripa again, back with another episode of Let's Talk Off Camera. So let's turn the cameras off and let's get started. Woohoo!

So, okay. So I've got Jan Chalet. Hi. Mother of two. Woo-hoo! To a young adult and a teenager. Yes. I've got Albert Bianchini. Mother of one. Mother of one adult. And mother of one labradoodle. One mother of one labradoodle. And I've got my long-suffering assistant, Lauren Travleoni. Woo, Lauren! Big thanks. Special guest star. Special guest star. Mother of two children.

small kids, five and eight. And boy, when I tell you, she slid those kids out. I have never seen anything quite like it. Well, you actually saw the first. She didn't even push. She just like coughed. Tell us about you seeing Lauren give birth. Yeah, you blasted in there. I pushed my way in because they said, are you one of the grandmothers? And I said, yes.

I was going to take issue with being called a grandmother, but I just was like, yes, I am. And they were like, well, then you have to wait inside the room. And I was like, fine. And then I came in and I see Lauren spread eagle. I left my body. And she was like, no, get out. What?

Did you stay at the head or the feet? I was eyeball to eyeball with Charlie. Charlie. Kelly was the first person Charlie made eye contact with. Doug was trying to block Kelly and my mother and mother-in-law from my view because...

Not only was Kelly not supposed to be in there, my mother and mother-in-law weren't supposed to be in there. Well, we dragged all... We all went in together. Yeah. It never occurred to them why there were three grandmothers. Well, I was induced and it was just a long process. And they kind of forgot about me in the... You know, they're doing their thing and... But Kelly stopped by to see me, to say hello, you know. And then all of a sudden, everyone started to pay attention to me. You see? You should be saying thank you. You're welcome, you monster.

And then they're like, oh, you're ready. And instead of making them leave the room, they welcome them, you know, to be part of the birth. And when I tell you, I did so much heavy breathing. I'm surprised I didn't push a baby out. I'm not kidding. I was like, I'm going to push something out and it's not going to be pretty. Yeah. But you did a great job. Thank you. Very proud of you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. The reason that we're all here talking about our kids is because the perfect person to discuss parenting under the best and sometimes most challenging of circumstances is really a woman who understands this from the ground up. Autism spectrum disorder can present in so many different ways, and there's no universal way that people understand it. Right.

But our guest today has done more to find every possible solution through her foundation, through her writing, and through her endless parental advocacy. She hasn't let go of her career, and she's raised four kids that are heartbroken.

hardworking, conscientious, in, wait for it, Hollywood. Okay? Okay? You know her from 21 Jump Street, hanging with Mr. Cooper, For Your Love. She's got a foundation called the Holly Rod Foundation, which advocates for children and families whose lives are impacted by autism. So please welcome my dear friend. She's one of a kind, Holly Robinson-Pete. Woo!

I don't know if I can live up to that. You set the bar way too high. And now I'm coming up with all kinds of amazing things and gems that I feel pressure to drop. I just want to tell people that we are looking at each other on my computer and Holly apparently is coming to us from Machu Picchu today. I cannot believe how good the internet is here. It's amazing.

It's so good. And your hotel has such a nice view. Oh, my gosh. Who knew there were hotels right on the dead smack center of Machu Picchu? There you go. Let's fantasize. I do fantasize every time I'm on Zoom because I'm painting my office. So I thought, let's go to Peru, where my daughter went many years ago, took great photos, and now they're all my backgrounds for Zoom. Oh, great.

So I was talking a little bit, I was telling these guys, we had a much longer discussion before we even logged on and started this podcast because we've all in some way, shape or form been through a process with the exception of Lauren. We've all been through a process where one or more of our kids has some sort of

either language-based learning disability, reading impairment, some sort of impairment. I always say like if you put all three of my kids together in a blender, you would get one regular learner. You know what I mean? Because they all have their strengths and their weaknesses. You have four kids, but tell me about RJ specifically. Take me back to the beginning.

Okay, so RJ was born in 1997. I was pregnant with twins in the summertime. I couldn't believe I had two babies in me and watching them kung fu fight inside me. And my husband was playing football at the time for the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback.

At the end of, like, right when I went into labor, he was playing a game. And I'll never forget. So I was in L.A. and he was in Philly. And I literally was trying to hold on for him. So I'm watching the game.

at Cedars Hospital. I'm about to deliver these twins. And then all of a sudden, Rodney goes into overtime. Of course. So, yeah, he wins the game. He flies home with a police escort in Philly. And of course, on the cover of the Philadelphia whatever newspaper,

They put O-T-G-Y-N, which I thought was the best cover. They're like, Rodney Peete recovers at the end of a bad game and runs for the winning touchdown and then runs to the airport. So he gets to L.A., cuts the cords. He makes it. It's all great. And, you know, it was really, really a heady time. I'm a rookie mom with twins. I'm double breastfeeding Kelly. That's a whole nother movie. Yep.

Yep. I'm like, okay, God gave me two. So it was just this really cool time. I went back to work on For Your Love, a sitcom that I love so much when they were three months. Rodney's a quarterback in the NFL. I'm on a TV series. I'm starring. The hormones are flowing. My hair's down my back. Everything was great. And all of a sudden, I want to say probably...

a year and a half almost two years into raising these twins I noticed that RJ was disconnected from his twin sister he just wouldn't play with her and she was trying so hard so I don't know what's going on of course I go to my pediatrician he said he's a boy boys are going to be boys they're going to do what they do and so I literally was like okay no worries

But then I just saw him going more and more inward. He stopped making eye contact. He had a couple words in him around two-ish, and he stopped saying those words. I'll never forget it was cow and bunny. He stopped saying them. And so I went to the pediatrician again.

He's like, Holly, you're worried about this. You're oh, you know, forget it. And then by the way, can Rodney go golfing on the weekend? Like he was such a jock sniffer. My pediatrician, all he cared about was all he cared about was going to play golf with Rodney P. That's like all I cared about. So I was very frustrated because my mommy gut was churning. I knew it was different about this kid. But we, but I'm a rookie mom, right? I don't know anything, but I just, my instinct is churning. So I,

Finally, you know, we went to this big ritzy ditzy school out here. We got into and they charge you some ridiculous amount of money for pre-K. Right. It's like pre-K. But it's the school that all the high pollutant folks go to. And I'm thinking, I want to get my kids at that school. So they get in and probably about three months in, they called me in and they were like,

uh, yeah, your son is like, you know, he's not looking at the teacher. He's in his own world and we don't think we can teach him. Okay. So that was, you know, a shot to the gut and I'll be okay. Something's up. So I pulled him out of that school. I finally go to my pediatrician. I'm like choking him. You have to tell me what's going on with this kid. Okay. You'll go, I'll send you to a developmental pediatrician. I go there and this lady,

says she wants to test both kids. So she's testing these two-year-olds and she said that everything RJ did, Ryan did. So she was like mimicking her twin brother. And so then she came back. She said, ah, they're both on the autism spectrum. They both have autism.

Then she went to tell me this whole laundry. Oh, I was like, no, no, no. Maybe him, but definitely not her. And then of course she didn't believe me and whatever. And she came back and said, no, I was wrong. She's not, but she was mimicking him for some reason, but she's not on the spectrum. And later on, she was like, I mimicked him because he wasn't going down alone. I was going to be in there for him, which I thought was amazing.

Yeah. She also had all kinds of other issues later on that she made me feel guilty about, but that's another podcast. Right. That's another podcast. But that is a real thing though, because I think that when you have one child that really gets the lion's share of attention for any extended period of time, there is the pendulum of your other kids figuring out ways to get your attention.

Correct. And she was the neurotypical one. So when he would do things, he would melt down in a restaurant and she's sitting there like an angel going, oh, well, I guess that's the end of my night. And she never complains. And I feel like siblings of kids with special needs really don't

get understood or heard or seen as much as they should. So there's that part. So we finally get the diagnosis of autism, but we also get a laundry list of things he would never do. We call that the never day. Still, we were just doing an interview yesterday, Kelly. They asked us about that day.

Boy's 25 now. That was 23 years ago. And Rodney, his face was like as if we were hearing those nevers for the first time. He will never mainstream in school. He'll never say I love you. He'll never have meaningful employment. I'll never drive all these things. And we were sitting there just listening to this. And Rodney was like, how dare you tell us who our kid is going to be? It's a three year old boy.

How dare you limit his possibilities for his life? So that was a never day. And that was a real bummer.

So to this day, all these years later, I always take the time to stop down and have conversations with parents. I don't care if I know them, if somebody refers them to me, if I see them on Instagram or Twitter, I will talk to strangers because that speech that you get on that day in that moment sets the tone for how you advocate for your kid. And I just want to be there to say, listen, don't let anybody tell you your kid's not going to be something. I think that you also have this like phenomenal marriage.

And I think that words like that, the nevers and the can'ts and the won'ts can break a marriage apart very quickly if it's not on stable ground to begin with. Sometimes there's so much financial stress in a situation like that if you don't have the resources. I mean, tell me, did you two immediately get on the same page or was one of you more like

I'm a catastrophist, so I catastrophize everything, and Mark is very stable. So are you the catastrophist? Do you have a catastrophist in your marriage? When we got that diagnosis, Rodney was on denial streak, and I was on whoop somebody's ass after that.

We had completely different, you know, men just process this diagnosis differently. Not all of them, but mostly in my experience, and we've been advocating for families for years and met so many. RJ is supposed to be the Heisman Trophy winner. And instead he got

The kid who comes to the locker room and runs around and twirls and flaps and stems. And all the other kids are getting autographs from all these football players and running around the field and catching balls. So all of his dreams and hopes for his son, this kid who's his namesake and his first born, theoretically, he was born two minutes before Ryan,

wasn't what he thought it was going to be. And it was so devastating for him. And I had no time for him. When I tell you, I was like, first of all, he was away working. I'm working.

There was nobody I could call. Like there was no me back then. There was no like person to go, oh my gosh, you're experiencing the same thing or you've had 10 years experience. No, you were the, you, you were the one, you were the beginning, but I knew other people in the, in this town of Hollywood that had kids on the spectrum, but didn't want to talk about it publicly. And that's okay. That's okay. But boy, I would have loved to have had a North star, some parent,

that I could call up and just go, what is my future going to be like? And I didn't have that. And then Rodney was in denial. He had only the bandwidth for his freaking playbook. That's it. And the playbook of being a father of a kid with autism did not exist. And so he could not process this. And I would do my sitcom for three weeks and then I would come with those two babies and I would fly to him and airports were crazy and RG was melting down. It was insane.

I would get there and I would find these autism books, Kelly, that I spent the good time in trouble. Dog Aaron and highlight, like, how dare you? So the answer to your question. Everybody here is like going like this. We were not on the same page. We weren't even in the same state or country. It was amazing.

We weren't in the same book. We weren't in the same chapter. It was like I was all alone. And I finally said to him, I cannot eggshell my life around you because you're sad about the kid you got, but you thought you weren't good. So this was a big issue. I was ready to leave him.

Now, did I want to do this on my own? No, but he was no help. And then he was in denial. And even people in his family couldn't even say the word autism. I'm like, y'all people are slowing me down.

You know, my gangsta mom jacket is on and I cannot with you. So I told him, I said, I'm out of here. And then did he, did he immediately turn it around? It was through sheer embarrassment that he turned it around. No matter what I said, no matter how much I fussed at him, no matter how much I called him, all kinds of names and cussed him out and told him, you're really going to lose your family because you're so like,

Like he came to a therapy session with RJ and there's a therapy called floor time with a lot of these kids on the spectrum. And so floor time, when you literally get on the floor and you interact with them and Rodney was at this therapy session and

And he's trying to get this like response from RJ and interaction with RJ. RJ is like not looking at him, not connecting with him. And the therapist sits down and starts connecting with RJ and RJ looks at him and is connecting with him. And Rodney's like,

Oh, my God. Like, I can't even connect with my own child. And one thing Rodney is going to he hates to be embarrassed. That's like his. I mean, who does likes that? But he didn't learn this because he didn't read the goddamn pages. Remember, he's supposed to read them pages. I said so. He didn't learn this floor time technique. Right.

And someone else knew it and could talk or connect with his son. And he felt like two inches tall. And it was that moment that turned him around. He was like, there's no way in the world. Some stranger is going to connect with my kid, but I won't. And that really was it. It turned him around and he's been on board ever since forever.

And he's written a beautiful book called not my boy. And it's such a great book because he's, you know, he's this macho football player and he, you know, is able to relate to a lot of dads out there. So now he's been this amazing advocate and we got on the same page, but yeah,

But it's not to say there weren't issues after that, but man, I'm so glad you did. But I think a lot of people will be comforted because when I look at the two of you and know you as a couple, I know you as a united front and a force, especially to families dealing with autism. And you run this charitable endeavor, which is such an, like, it's such an enormous thing to get off the ground, but then to have year after year, the Holly Rod Foundation, and it's like,

changing lives. Kelly, we are coming up on 25 years. Like this is our 25th anniversary. I can't even believe it. And yesterday we were at RJ's place, which is our autism compassionate care center, which, you know, was like a dream of mine to, to try to build. But like, we were just talking about how the hell did we get 25 years in of this? You know, the other thing was, you know, okay, now I get them on board.

to actually say the word autism and get on the floor and do floor time with them and get on the same page with me. But then the question was, do we talk about it publicly? Do we talk about it to the world? And he, again, Mr. Embarrassment, I don't want to put RG on blast. I don't want everybody to think he's the...

poster child. And I told him, remember when we were looking for somebody out there that was talking about it, how that would have changed it for us? Well, we need to be those people. It was a debate. And we sat down at the kitchen table and we said, here's the pros and here's the cons.

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The question was, do we talk about it publicly? Do we talk about it to the world? And again, Mr. Embarrassment, I don't want to put RG on blast. And I told him, remember when we were looking for somebody out there that was talking about it, how that would have changed it for us? Well, we need to be those people. And I won that argument because, you know, I win every argument in my house. And so we were talking yesterday, we were doing this sort of 25 year retrospective for our Hollywood video that we did. And he was like,

I tell you all the time, thank you for changing my mind because it's,

It's there's not a day that goes by. This is Rodney saying this, that somebody doesn't thank me for being this example and tell me how much it helped them that when they found out that their son or daughter was on the spectrum and they were told they wouldn't do anything in life, they are able to reference. Well, what about the Pete? So he was like, oh, Rodney Pete, you know, hung in there. And so he was like, thank you, honey, because I didn't want to do it this way.

And then RJ is just so lovely about it because he's the reluctant autism rock star, right? Right. Especially at that age, you know, 25 years old. He doesn't want to be acknowledged at all. He just wants to be his own man, right? But he is the embodiment of what parents of two-year-olds across doctors' rooms, visits all across this country, being given the list of the don'ts and can'ts,

they have him to look to. And he really gets to that times.

Because we've been out and we've had people walk up to us with him there saying, thank you, RJ. And he's like, mom, why are they, why are they thanking me? I was like, because you shared your story. Oh, and he's like, okay, well, does that make me a hero? And I'm like, yeah, it actually kind of does. But then, you know, he got, then he got slick later on Kelly. Cause I went to, you know, went to his room that night and I found like, he's not supposed to eat in his room. And he had this,

pizza, old pizza, Lord knows how long it had been sitting underneath the bed. And I pull it out. I'm like, what are you doing? You know, why did you do this? And he's like, because I have autism. And he's like, you know, like, wait, it worked earlier, but I think he does get it. And he's, he's seen enough people, especially during our Hollyrod events where these kids will come and they'll say thank you to him. And he gets it. He just gets like, cause he gets invited to do a lot of speaking appearances and

Sometimes, you know, he's like, I don't want to. And then sometimes I force him because it's just I know what it will mean to others. And other times I just let him, you know, and if it's during baseball season because he works for the Dodgers and you can forget it, you will not give up one game. I mean, that's the thing. He works for the Dodgers. Think about that. And I've told you this a million times. It doesn't matter how many times I say it.

The never day in 2000, they said he wouldn't drive. He wouldn't work. He wouldn't have meaningful employment. This boy drives to Dodger stadium every day. And he went from, you ain't never going to do nothing. And all those triple double negatives to a world series ring with his name on it. Unbelievable. It's really like, it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.

It doesn't even happen like this. Like I still, I get the chills all over my body thinking about it. And it's just so remarkable. Now, is everybody going to have the same outcome? No, but like just to know that a kid that was told that all the things they wouldn't do is able to check some of those nevers is a powerful testimonial that people need to hear. So as much as my family hated me for dragging them on TV for meet the Pete's and for Pete's sake, they hated it. But,

But, but now in hindsight, they're like, oh mom, that's kind of cool. Or there was a whole episode we did with RJ getting his driver's license and families found out that you could get your driver's license with an oral test. Wow. Because a lot of kids on the spectrum don't test well written. That's right. So,

Anyway, so we just really wanted to be that family that was there. And it's really worked out. And then, you know, one thing I want to say about RJ. So he drives and he got his license and it's all amazing. When I tell you I cannot sleep at night when he's driving home from Dodger Stadium. Sometimes he has to go there at two in the morning to unload those bags.

And I am petrified that he's going to get pulled over. Nothing good happens after 2 a.m. And by the way, he got pulled over recently. And I asked him, the cop, how were they? He said, well, it was a highway patrolman and he was nice. He didn't shoot me. Wow. Now I'm saying this from RJ's voice because, you know, RJ is a pure, the boy doesn't know how to lie. So he just speaks so purely. And he was, I was like, oh my God, how sad is that? Wow.

There are so many people that have never interacted or are unaware that they're interacting with somebody who is either on the spectrum or has autism. And there's a lack of awareness and a lack of understanding.

How do you prepare RJ to interact with cops or other people or superiors who may not understand? Like, does he say, hello, officer, I'm autistic? I took him to the police department.

I introduced him because he used to, before he had a car, he was just a like gangly teenager. He used to walk up and down the street in Encino and he would just walk on Ventura Boulevard. He talks to himself. He's quirky. Yeah, of course. Right? So I would, I took his ass right to that police department. I said, hello, hi, Holly Robinson-Pete used to be a cop on 21 Jump. I used to every,

Every single thing in my IMDB arsenal to try to get them to understand that this kid was so cool and so sweet, but he's misunderstood. I found the senior lead officer and I said, do you all have any training to know and understand what autism looks like out in the streets and how it presents itself?

And I said, Hollyrod Foundation will pay for it. We'll cover you guys. And we, so we've since been able to underwrite and sponsor many programs because you've got to think that with the prevalence of autism at one in 44 right now,

How many of these cops have kids on the spectrum? There's got to be a ton of them. But for some reason, I don't know if it's because they're, you know, underfunded. I don't know what the deal is, but they're not enough of these. And we've already seen this kind of bad outcome happen before. So I took RJ and took him out there. We documented it with cameras. We did all of that. But I've had many conversations about

this actually on the show, we actually talked to Kamala Harris when she was just a Senator before she ran and became vice president. And we talked about how autism and Parkinson's, which my dad had and my brother has can present themselves in scary ways. If you get stopped by a cop, a lot of times people think my brother is under the influence or something, but he's, he's not, he has Parkinson's and it can present itself. So we thought about

to get RJ's law passed. And that would be some kind of notification that comes up on either on a license plate or on a driver's license that indicates that the person is on the spectrum. Hello, I have autism. Like you said, Cal, it's like RJ has been schooled, right? He knows exactly what to say, where to put his hands. But,

But I worry about somebody who doesn't have that. So we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to advocating for community policing and understanding what autism looks like on the streets. But we got to keep fighting that. Yeah, I think it's really important. And especially, you know, there's so few services in general when it comes to schooling.

Like, what did you do after pre-K? Well, we got kicked out of that fancy dancy school. We went into a...

a school for special needs kids, which was great, but I wanted him to mainstream. I wanted him to be around typical kids and I wanted inclusion. And I had a hard time finding that. Then I did identify a great elementary school that allowed him to go there with his twin sister and a shadow. Now that was part of me, gangster mom in my way into that situation, but it was also, you know, a school that really, you know,

embraced inclusion. But judging by the people that I talked to and the other families that I've met in this 20 something year journey, you rarely see that. You got IEPs, which anybody with a special needs kid would understand that those letters, that acronym is like, sends chills through your bones because they are supposed to tell you all the services that your kid get. But we have to sue the board of ed to just get your funding. Yeah. Just to get

20 hours of speech, they tell you your kid needs six, but you know he's nonverbal and he needs 20. So that's a challenge. Who has time? Who has time for that? Who has time or energy? And then you have the problem of inequities in different communities. So when I would take RJ to, you know, therapies on the west side of Los Angeles,

that was one kind of therapy. If you try to get the same therapies in South LA or East LA, you don't have them. They don't exist or there's a waiting list of two years. So it's just the barriers are so much worse in the black and brown community. So that's a lot of the work that Hollyrod Foundation does, right? We really try to

help guide people along this journey to give them the resources and tips and, and help them get advocates. Right. So help them get a lawyer, help them underwrite that because that's, that's something that you, like you said, if they're a single mom or even if they're a two parent family, you don't have time to do all of this. So it's been a really, you know, great,

journey for us, but the work just never stops. Remediation is so expensive too. Learning how to engage with your kid on the floor, that costs money. That specialist costs a fortune. Having an evaluation, that costs money. All of these things cost money. Let's just start there.

Getting the evaluation. So people are, oh, go get, I'm the first one to say it. You've got to diagnose them early. You've got to get early intervention. But like, I stopped saying that at one point without the caveat of if you can freaking afford it. Right.

Like that's the thing, because you need to get your kid diagnosed early so that you can get interventions going. But what if you can't even afford it? It costs a fortune and the waiting list. So again, I'm telling you, get them in early, but you can't get, you know, off of this waiting list. So there's still so many things. And when I think about the 22 years that we've been dealing with this and, and helping families, I still see people.

It's so many inequities. I have a friend that just got a diagnosis. She's got a lot of resources. She's literally moving to New Jersey, your home state where they, for whatever reason, New Jersey is an excellent state for kids on the spectrum of her special needs. I'm not sure why, but it is one of those states where there are, you can have access to a lot of services.

And so we just need to do better. We just got to do better. I told you my dad is the county clerk of Camden, New Jersey, and he hired a young man who has autism. And he said that he will never not hire a person with autism because that kid is the hardest worker he's ever worked with. He does everything right. He double, triple checks his work. My dad counts on him for everything and says he's incredible at what he does.

That story makes me so happy because we need more of that. And that's another thing that we do at Holly Ride. We do job training. We work with companies and organizations that will hire inclusively. That's how RJ got his job. Okay. I'm an actress. I'm a big Dodger fan. I know everybody over there. Okay. So you got the Nepo kid thing that for sure. But the fact that they hired him and the fact that it's been documented and the fact that other clubs can see that and see what that means. And he worked his butt off.

Oh my God, this kid works so hard, but like he has a whole dugout full of friends. This is a kid who didn't, who grew up with no friends. So all of a sudden, you know, have all these people, these grownups that are, you know, love you and protective of you and have this camaraderie. It gave him purpose. It gave him everything. So, you know, I'm, I'm the obnoxious mom that goes to Dodger stadium and videos him cleaning up

The dugout is the nasty place you ever. It's so goddamn disgusting that dugout. You don't even want to know. And there's RJ. And then I'm there. I'm like, you go, boy, you clean up that town. Look at my boy. Clean up that peanut shell. You go, boy. That's right. That's spittle.

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Fiji water's electrolytes are 100% naturally occurring. Visit your local retailer to pick up some today for your next backyard party, beach or pool day, hike or even your home office. It's not just water. It's Fiji water. Every time I try to post or document or say to deer dodgers, thank you for the love. Thank you for this job. It's changed his life.

They're always like, Holly, will you stop? Like, you don't understand what he brings to our clubhouse. He's the best hugger. He knows everything about each one of us because he's got that brain. He knows when we were drafted. He knows our birthdays. He knows our wives' birthdays. He knows, you know, how superstitious baseball is. He knows what I need on my jersey, how I want this. And he has, he's just an amazing employee over there. What the Dodgers don't realize is by you blowing up the Dodgers, it does, like you said, incentivize other ball clubs to,

Hey, that kid, he crosses his T's, he dots his I's, he gets his job done. And that is going to encourage other ball clubs to hire kids with autism because they know they are getting a worker who doesn't complain, keeps their head down, does their job, works harder than everybody else because they've always had to work harder than everybody else.

And maybe Holly Robinson-Pete will show up at the house and blow up their club too. You know what? Every day when he works there and he has to put on a face, right? He has to act normal. Mm-hmm.

It's so exhausting to him. When he comes home, he jumps on the trampoline. It's basically stimming, but he jumps on the trampoline for two hours. Lately, we have had rain. No matter, he will jump on rain, wind, no matter what. He jumps, even if he comes home at two in the morning, it just calms him down. He's always loved that trampoline.

But you're absolutely right. I mean, the example that the Dodgers set by hiring RJ is phenomenal. And if you don't see it, you know, people just think, oh, well, we're not going to do that. So they've continued. They've hired other people. And we just love it.

Is there a company that we should all know about and we should support and buy their products? When there are companies that are generous with their money, I like to support those companies. Especially those companies that hire our kids, right? So there are a couple that I want to shout out. So Cigna...

Cigna Healthcare is our number one angel on the path. Like when I tell you we would have gone under during the pandemic if it wasn't for them, they allowed us to keep our programs going and they're amazing. And they've hired many of our kids. Cigna Healthcare. And they love these kids. So Cigna, shout out to Cigna. I have to say that Outback Steakhouse has hired a lot of our kids.

Home of the Bloomin' Onion. That onion. Honey, that Bloomin' Onion. They got a couple, they got some good-ass drinks there, too. Outback Steakhouse. Make sure if you're going out to dinner tonight, you should go to Outback Steakhouse. Go! And you know what? These adults that, you know, that we placed at Outback, because we did a really fantastic job fair, and they got hired. Some of them got hired on the spot and went to work, like, the next day. It was such a glorious moment. So Outback,

There's one company called Popcorn for the People. Check them out. Seth, our engineer, is here Googling popcorn for the people right now. When I tell you that popcorn is so good, Seth, when you taste that popcorn, you have to let me know what your favorite flavor is. And so I'm giving them love. And so there are so many of them. And this is progress, Kelly. In 2000, there were no...

corporations having any kind of programs to hire these kids. And talk about full circle moments now. You know, I'm thinking about full circle moments. For those people, our listeners at home listening to this, you may or may not know that Holly's dad was the original Gordon on Sesame Street. And they have introduced, Sesame Street has introduced Julia as

who is a character with autism. Now, was that your idea? Did you have that input? I did not, but I will say this. When they wanted to introduce her, they had a huge press conference at Capitol Hill. Oh, wow. And they asked me...

me, little Holly Robinson-Pete, to come and introduce Julia. Now, when I tell you, I could barely keep it together that day because you're right. It was a full circle moment. And I just want to say that some people are too young to remember my dad. He was the OG, original Gordon. He started in 69.

And I don't think a lot of people really understand what was going on in this country in '69 and '70 and '68. So my dad being on this groundbreaking show with all this diversity and a show that took place on a city block in the community, in the hood, it was just so groundbreaking and huge.

So yes, it's a full circle moment because my dad started the show. The first scene of the show, hi, I'm Gordon, welcome to Sesame Street. He introduced you to Ernie, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch. And so all these years later, 50 something years later, for me to be introducing Julia, it was very, very cool. So I love Julia. And by the way, if RJ had had a Julia, I guarantee you his time at school, she spread so much awareness, acceptance, and inclusion.

And so I wish he had had a Julia. Yeah, I do too. But people were just written off as so many different things. People were avoided. There were people you just avoided.

Right. People you avoided and people that couldn't connect with you. And if you don't make that extra effort to connect with them, they have no way to reach you. I asked RJ one time and it was one of the most beautiful scenes that we ever had on our reality show because we had gone, we flew to Detroit to open an art RJ's place room. And it was all these kids and families, you know, and kids on the spectrum. And we were talking and I said, what was that experience like for you? He goes, it was,

you know, I really feel bad for them because I know they want to say things. They just can't get it out. And I said, what did that feel like when you were nonverbal? And he said, it felt like a ball stuck in your throat. Oh, gosh. And I'm telling you, that moment was so amazing because I had never heard him say it like that before. It's like surmises it perfectly. It's got to be so frustrating to know what you want to say and you just can't get it out.

This boy constantly teaches me. And now that he is so articulate, I mean, and now that he is able to express himself, it's like really good intel for him to be able to tell me now what he was thinking 15, 16 years ago. Because a lot of parents who have autistic children probably want to tap into their brain and

RJ is a little window into their brain. That's correct. And that's information that you want to share. So it's been, you know, it's been such a journey and, you know, he's 25 and he still has his issues. He still has a lot of anxiety about women and dating. And that's, that's hard for him. It's hard under the best of circumstances. It is, but it's a big conversation over here. Yeah. Tell me about your dating show. Okay. So I,

I never, until the pandemic, even watched any of these dating shows. But something about during the pandemic, I got... Both Rodney and I got obsessed with a few shows that we were like, wow.

way too invested in. So we got a little bit hooked on this genre. So after that comes this opportunity to do this show and the show is called Queens Court. It's on Peacock. So we wanted to know what the takeaway would be because it was just going to be some hard bodies running around on the beach and, you know, who's going to do this and who, and then at the end, everybody just sort of yells at the people and,

They said, no, you're going to be involved. You're going to be mentors. I said, you mean I get to say to someone you're being an asshole right now. And that's why she does not. They're like, yes. So we loved it because we could impart some wisdom that we have. It's three women who are well-known, who have lived their lives sort of out in the world.

They've been through everything from domestic abuse to bad divorces, a lot of issues, right? And they are ready. So there was a real authenticity to it. I said, y'all, I don't want to do this. If people are not really trying to find love and they're not ready to listen to Rodney and I about what it takes. But you have like wisdom that you can really instill in couples looking for love.

a real relationship. Especially if they wanted to hear it. And many ladies were so invested. And Rodney P was way too invested. Like he was so, he got so upset at one guy for blowing his chance with him. And I was like, okay, calm down, Spritle. But that's, I think what makes it so good. We're invested already that you had me at, you didn't even need to finish Queens Court. You had me at Qua. I was like, I'm in. And then let's just talk about Masked Singer.

I mean, when were you going to tell me? I mean, you can't give me a heads up. When I tell you the NDAs are over the top. Like, really? Like, really, guys? Like, my kids had to sign NDAs. My dog, Freddie and Akira had to sign, had to put a paw print on an NDA. I was like, y'all, really? I'm not going to tell anybody. But let me just tell you this. I was so pissed that I got voted off. Like, mad. Yeah.

I out sung that boy. You're an amazing singer. You're an amazing singer. I am an okay singer. I sang the theme. Listen, I had a record deal. I'm smoking a fake cigarette right now for those of you who can't see. I had a record deal back in the 80s. That's what I wanted to do. But then I got Jump Street. They let me sing the theme song. I got hanging with Mr. Cooper. They let me sing the theme song. Basically, all I did was sing theme songs. That was the extent of my career. But I do love to sing. I always loved it. But

When I got the chance to do this, I took it so seriously, even though I was in this crazy outfit. But actually, the outfit was beautiful. I was so glad I didn't have to be some kind of rodent, a gopher. I was fair. I know. It's pretty. Anyway, but it was so funny because I really thought I killed it the second night, the second week. And I really did.

was like, I crushed that. In my mind, like I never sang better. Yeah. And then the makeup artist was like, would you like sparkles on your face tonight? I was like, oh, that's a bad sign. Because in other words, I knew I was getting unmasked. So I was upset. But the first week was extra special because it was Sesame Street night. Oh, my God.

And I got to sing Linda Ronstadt's You're No Good to Oscar the Grouch. Amazing. And I got handed my scepter from Big Bird. So that, you talk about full circle moments, that was pretty dope. Well, thank you for joining us today. You really are extraordinary.

Kelly, you know that I adore you and I'm your number one fan. I'm your number one fan. And I'm so glad to be able to talk with you today. And thank you on behalf of so many autism families that we serve and across the world who...

probably got more from this podcast and got more information and felt more seen than they, than they normally get to, because that is, that is the most important thing. We need autism inclusion, awareness, and autism love and acceptance. Well, you, thanks for allowing me to talk about that. Thank you for all the work you do on behalf of families who are in this very scary, unknown, you're like literally a pioneer. You really are. And,

And congratulations. I hope you're writing your memoir. We've talked about it a lot. I hope you're in the middle of it. If you need my help, you know I'm a good, clean eye. Oh, I will be calling you. Let me know. Thank you, babe. Same to you. I love you so much. Bye-bye. Bye, baby. Love you. Love you. Guys.

I mean, she's the best. That was a good one. An important one on a very important episode of Let's Talk Off Camera. Holly Robinson-Pete. Thanks, everybody. See you next time. Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa is a co-production of Melojo Productions and PRX Productions with help from Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is Follow Me from APM Music.

From Melojo, our team is Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos, Albert Bianchini, Jan Chalet, Devin Schneider, Michael Halpern, Jacob Small, Roz Therrien, Seth Gronquist, and Nick Ribola. From PRX Productions, our team is Cara Schillen, Genevieve Sponsler, Megan Nadolski, Edwin Ochoa, Rebecca Seidel. Additional sound design by Terrence Bernardo.

The executive producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzalez. This show is powered by Stitcher.

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