Giuliana Rancic covers the weekend issue of Chicago Sun-Times Splash magazine to promote her upcoming NBC show, “Ready for Love,” which she will co-host with her husband, Bill. The show sounds like a “Bachelor” knockoff even though Giuliana attempts (in this interview) to distance her project from other reality-based dating shows. Also, her words make it quite evident that Giuliana can’t make up her mind about whether or not she wants to have more kids. Here, she says that she’s very interested in doing so, but a few weeks ago, she told Us Weekly that she’d always wanted a big family but admitted that one kid is a lot of work already, so she’s not sure and that “as of now there’s nothing in the works.”
About a month ago, she controversally stated that she and Bill “put our marriage first and our child second, because the best thing we can do for him is have a strong marriage.” At first, I reckoned that Giuliana and Bill were actually spending quite a lot of time with baby Duke (who is currently seven months old) and perhaps just taking some special couple time to go out on “adults-only” dates and such, which seemed wise. Then the very next day, they hopped on an airplane for what looked like a baby-free vacation, which seemed very bizarre. There’s no way I could have spent over a week without my daughter when she was a baby, and I couldn’t ever do it now that she’s a pre-teen either. Their baby may have been on a later flight as Giuliana posed for some candids in the pool at her resort with him about a week after they left. Here are some excerpts from the Splash interview where Giuliana elaborates a bit more on her and Bill’s efforts to balance marriage and baby:
Advice she’d give her younger self: “You’ll never use geometry. So don’t sweat that D, girl. I wasn’t the best student. Instead, I was being social, having fun, developing a sense of humor. And these are all skills that help me every day.”
On “Ready for Love”: “It’’s unlike anything that’s ever been on TV,” she says of the series, which pairs three men with three expert matchmakers who help them screen potential partners.
Is it possible to find true love on tv? “Not on ‘The Bachelor.'” The difference with her show, she claims, is that the female cast members know exactly who they’ll be dating — before accepting applications, Executive Producer Eva Longoria introduced the bachelors to the world on “The Today Show” last spring. “Women applied if they saw something about a certain guy and thought, ‘I want to get to know him.’ That initial connection is so importan. It’s like when I met Bill. It was love at first sight. I knew there was something about him the second I laid eyes on him.”
More on marriage first, parenthood second: “Your marriage is the first example of a relationship that your child is exposed to. Bill and I are always kissing and holding hands and loving on each other in front of our child, and I think that’s so important for [Duke] to see. I want him to respect women. We never want to lose our marriage or ourselves. We made a vow, and we plan on keeping it.”
Bill is sooo romantic: “Bill doesn’t even drink coffee, but every day he insists on making my coffee. And you know why? Because his dad made his mom coffee every day, and he thought that was so romantic. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a shoot that was running late, and I was supposed to take Duke to a mommy-and-me class. Let’s just say I didn’t quite make it on time, and a certain someone had to fill in for me. And if you know my husband, that is not his cup of tea.”
She’ll pull away from E! in a few years? “I’ve accomplished everything I’ve ever wanted to. I’d love to ride that wave for awhile, then eventually pull back, spend more time with the baby and Bill in Chicago. Bill’s made no secret of not liking LA. And I’m not a big fan, either. There’s something about Chicago we love. I have great friendships here, the people are wonderful and it’s where we want Duke to go to school.”
Will she have more kids? “We’d only be so lucky.” But even then, Rancic won’t hide from the cameras. “Our long-term goal is to host a daytime relationship show together in Chicago.”
[From Splash/Sun Times
Like I said already, I agree that couple time is very important for parents if they can manage to grab a few hours here and there away from their kids, but I think Giuliana and Bill are taking things to an extreme by perhaps vacationing away from their baby during his infancy. I guess I just don’t understand the “high-pressure” lifestyle of an E! “Fashion Police” diva, or maybe Giuliana and Bill weren’t as ready to assume the parenting lifestyle (such as it is) as they once imagined. That probably sounds super bitchy of me to say, but Giuliana would freely judge me as a parent, so you know, she can deal.
Photos courtesy of Chicago Sun-Times, Fame/Flynet, and WENN
