Annemarie Carpendale
For them, a flatline relationship that is too harmonious would be nothing
Annemarie Carpendale doesn’t know which pairs are wrong.
© © ProSieben / Julian Essink
Annemarie Carpendale explains how to recognize good and bad relationships and how the re-working with husband Wayne went.
Which duo is really a happy couple – and which one is just pretending? In the new show “How Fake Is Your Love?” (from today’s Tuesday, September 7th, at ProSieben) real couples meet wrong ones. Nobody knows who is real and who is fake. Not even presenter Annemarie Carpendale (43).
In an interview with the news agency spot on news, she talks about the signs of a happy and an unhappy relationship – even if the show mixed up their ideas about it quite a bit. She also tells about working with husband Wayne Carpendale (44), with whom she presents a program again.
Ms. Carpendale, you really didn’t know yourself which couples in “How Fake Is Your Love?” are real and which are not?
Annemarie Carpendale: No, I voluntarily decided to take part and that was a lot of fun from the first to the last second! Although I was there and actually always thought that I had a good feeling for something like that, I have to admit that I was actually wrong more often than not.
Is “HFIYL” more of a guessing show like “Masked Singer” or a couple challenge like “Sommerhaus der Stars” or “The Beauty and the Nerd”?
Carpendale: Well, if you ask me like this: “HFIYL” is actually just unique. And the perfect mix of love, lies, and passionate guessing. As a viewer, you are infected from the very first second. And the nice thing is: the real couples only find out in the first broadcast that there are also false couples among them.
How do you recognize a happy relationship at first glance?
Carpendale: Before “HFIYL” I would have said: By simply seeing it and, above all, feeling it when these people are standing in front of you. But unfortunately I can’t confirm that so easily after the show has been shot. I have let myself be fooled by one or the other.
Are arguments and disagreements still a part of it?
Carpendale: Oh yes! With Wayne and me it would never work without it. For me personally, a flatline relationship would not be anything in which everything is always peace, joy, pancakes.
Have you ever noticed in befriended couples that something is wrong behind the happy facade in the relationship?
Carpendale: We have a fairly open circle of friends, so problems are not kept secret – which sometimes leads to the wildest discussions in front of everyone. But everyone has problems. From my point of view, things get tight when one loves more than the other.
What are the unmistakable signs for you that something is no longer right in a relationship?
Carpendale: When you can tell by the body language of the couple that they don’t care. Or simply there is a lack of respect for one another. That always makes me very sad.
Do you think there are Hollywood celebrity couples who are really just fake? Which could it be?
Carpendale: You can hardly answer that from the outside, of course. In Hollywood in particular, that extra portion of glamor and glitter is wrapped around the relationship, making it even more difficult to differentiate between real and fake. For example, I don’t think George Clooney is just faking his relationship, as many claim. As a cosmopolitan person, he does not need to play something to the whole world. I’ve seen him live a few times and he’s just way too nice for this world – including his fans. I still don’t understand why he has to be gay because of that.
How did the shoot on Mallorca go under Corona conditions?
Carpendale: All couples were tested regularly and were in quarantine for 14 days before moving in. That’s why they were allowed to treat each other as normal. On the other hand – despite the vaccination and test before each shoot – I only entered the house in exceptional cases and with a very large distance from everyone. Then it was disinfected (laughs). Of course, I find that extremely unfortunate, because I’m actually a physical person and like to hug people or give them a pat on the bottom. I had to pull myself together quite a bit. But I am very happy and grateful that we were allowed to shoot at all.
What was it like to work with her husband again?
Carpendale: Unfortunately, we didn’t really work together this time. I did the entire production on site in Mallorca and my boys visited me privately with both grandmas. After such a long time it was again a kind of family get-together and it was really good. The idea that Wayne could set the program to music as a narrator actually only came to us during the shoot. And now it gives the show that very special, personal touch. Apart from his beautiful, dark, sexy speaker voice.
Her new show is the third together with her husband. Will they soon only be doubles?
Carpendale: Funny, my feeling is exactly the other way around, we haven’t done anything together for a long time. Wayne has just finished a big production with Sat.1 and for my last shows like “The Voice of Germany”, “Kiss Bang Love”, “red” or “taff” I stand with my television men Thore Schölermann or Christian Düren in front of the camera. Or as a single. Let’s put it this way: I really like the variety.
Can you still manage not to take work home too often?
Carpendale: We talk about work a lot, of course. But not because we do it together, but because we are each other’s best critics and advisors – and because we just enjoy talking about it. Although we really have so many other topics that we like to talk about at least as much, such as our circle of friends, our house building, the next trips and, above all, our little son. We actually talk the most about him – or with him – by far!