Harry Wijnvoord
The “The Price is Hot” star is celebrating his 75th birthday
Harry Wijnvoord celebrates his birthday.
© ddp/Panama Pictures
Harry Wijnvoord became known for hosting the show “The Price is Hot”. Today, May 12th, the Dutchman turns 75 years old.
Accidental discovery
Harry Wijnvoord only came to television by chance. After training as an assistant to business and tax consultants, he worked in the travel industry – and accompanied a group of media people on a trip to Hollywood in the late 1980s. Among the travelers was Jochen Filser, the then head of the RTL broadcasting group, who spontaneously signed him up for “The Price is Hot”. The show made the native Dutchman an instant star.
After the show ended, Wijnvoord remained loyal to television. However, he was no longer able to build on the success of “The Price is Hot”. Among other things, he presented “Stars against Stars” and the cooking show “Der Reis ist Heiß” (The Rice is Hot) and was a prominent face in teleshopping. In 2015 he returned to his roots as a tour guide and has since regularly traveled to distant countries for “sonnenklar.tv”.
According to his website, the host has appeared on 2,934 television shows and 1,789 radio shows. “I was active on television for 30 years, including in many other shows. Being able to do a job that you love for so long is an amazing gift,” he enthused in 2019 in an interview with “Spiegel”.
The jungle camp saved his life
In 2004, Harry Wijnvoord took part in the second season of the RTL jungle camp. He couldn’t take the crown, but voluntarily dropped out after eleven days in the Australian bush. Still, the reality show changed everything. Diabetes was discovered during a routine checkup. “I didn’t know that I was diabetic and that I was hypertensive. […] “The jungle camp basically saved my life,” he reported on the ARD program “Easier Life.” Today, the 75-year-old can live well with the disease and is committed to early detection. In November 2020, he was appointed to the board of the German diabetes aid chosen.
Since his diagnosis, the amateur chef has placed great emphasis on healthy eating and has been physically active. He is a passionate golfer and often takes part in charity tournaments. “My doctor is thrilled and it’s doing my blood work very well,” he said the golfer portal “Golf Post”. Sport gives structure to his everyday life. Wijnvoord also loves fishing and traveling in his motorhome. He had a special experience in 2016 when he appeared on the show “Old Guys on Tour” on Tele 5 together with the showmasters Frederic Meisner (70), Jörg Draeger (78), Björn-Hergen Schimpf (80) and tour guide Karl Dall ( 1941-2020) went on a pilgrimage on the Way of St. James.
In 2023, Harry Wijnvoord still had problems with his health. After speech interruptions, he was taken to the hospital. “Due to my sugar, my kidneys had largely shut down. That had an impact on my speech center,” he explained to the magazine “Das Neue Blatt”. There was a short-term danger to life. “Everything has worked out again. The values are so good that I no longer have to take any medication,” Wijnvoord gave the all-clear in May 2023.
Dream wedding 2021
In his private life, Harry Wijnvoord has found happiness again in his old age. Since 2021, he has been married for the second time to Iris Dahlke (57), whom he met three years earlier at the carnival in Cologne. “I was immediately in love with my wife. I was totally blown away,” he enthused to “Das Neue Blatt”. They celebrated their dream wedding for three days in 2022 on a cruise ship on the Rhine. The couple had the celebrations covered live by “sonnenklar.tv” as part of the program “Celebrities in Holiday Paradise”. Today the couple live together in a converted village school in Senden in Münsterland.
Harry Wijnvoord has a son born in 1977 from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1998.
TV comeback with “The Price is Hot”
In May 2022 it was actually said again “The price is hot” for Harry Wijnvoord. His cult show celebrated a comeback in primetime on RTL. Thorsten Schorn (48) replaced the late Walter Freiwald. The two were able to attract 2.84 million viewers to the television. However, the success did not last and after eight episodes it was over for the time being a year later. A final episode of the new edition with Wijnvoord and Schorn will be broadcast on May 23rd at 8:15 p.m. on RTLzwei.
The birthday child would have precise ideas about a new format for the future. “I thought about this years ago: After ‘The price is hot’ and ‘The rice is hot’, I only have one senior program left – ‘The old man is hot’. Everything for people over 55, travel, sex and “I would like to be happy in old age, including a dating portal,” he joked in an interview with “Spiegel”.