The Geissen family
Podcast project with Hazel Brugger and Thomas Spitzer
Carmen and Robert Geiss (left) with Hazel Brugger and Thomas Spitzer recording the podcast.
© SWR3/With pleasure
For an SWR3 podcast, Carmen and Robert Geiss work together with Hazel Brugger and Thomas Spitzer.
In episode one of four, the four gather around the table at the Geissen estate in St Tropez. The conversation is about, among other things, the couples’ professional and meeting stories and the experiences of Carmen and Robert Geiss in their adopted home Dubai, where they both spend their winter from January to March. “We’ve been flying there for 15 years and have lost our hearts there,” enthuses Carmen Geiss, who immediately invites the podcast colleagues there.
Hazel Brugger, who has been married to Spitzer since 2020 and has their own podcast with him, is also interested in tips for a long marriage when they first meet. “You mustn’t let boredom arise and we don’t have that,” explains Robert Geiss, who has been in a relationship with his wife since 1982 and married since 1994. “We experienced a lot, not only travelled, but built many houses, lived in different places. We made a four-year trip around the world with the children.” The latter would also have welded the family particularly together. “The children still say today: ‘We never want to miss the time. The closeness to mum and dad and the experiences we had.’ We are incredibly attached to each other and will move in together again in the future,” reveals Carmen Geiss about the renewed family reunification.
Robert Geiss on Michael Wendler: “He should have shown remorse first”
Towards the end of the podcast episode, the topic of Michael Wendler (51) also comes up. Robert and Carmen Geiss, who have had their own format on RTLzwei for many years and threatened the broadcaster with leaving, massively criticized the planning of a documentary soap about Wendler and Laura Müller (23), the broadcaster RTLzwei then rowed back and canceled it Project.
“I’m a person who never forgets and this man received a brutal platform from RTL and spoke badly about the station. Then there was the fact that he pulled advertising deals into it, my brother-in-law still gets the money from him today,” tells Carmen Geiss. “If you want the right to a new second chance, then you should first pay your debts and deal with the people you offended who are waiting for the money,” adds Robert Geiss. “He would have had to show remorse first before saying, now comes ‘The Wendlers are having a baby’. […] That’s why we had to make a very clear statement and appeal to the people who have something to say.”