NEED TO KNOW
Kelly Rizzo opened up about her first impression to Bob Saget during a recent guest appearance on the Trying Not to Die podcast
She explained that the actor, who died in 2022 at the age of 65, saw her on a dating app and decided to DM her on Instagram, but she “friend-zoned” him because of their age gap
After getting to know each other, Rizzo said they began dating and moved in together within a year
Kelly Rizzo is reflecting on how she met her late husband, Bob Saget, and the slow burn of their relationship.
During an appearance on the Dec. 2 episode of Jack Osbourne’s Trying Not to Die podcast, Rizzo, 46, recalled her initial reaction to The Full House star when he “slid into my DMs” nearly a decade ago after coming across her profile on the dating app Raya.
“Technically, I have Raya to thank for Bob,” she explained. “He saw me on Raya, but I didn’t see him. So then he went to my Instagram and then asked a mutual friend in Chicago, this radio host in Chicago — he just figured, well, Kelly’s in media in Chicago, and this guy is, maybe they know each other. So he reached out to this guy, Ro, his name is Rohan [Guntillake], and he said, ‘Hey, do you know this Kelly Rizzo girl?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I do actually.’ And Bob goes, ‘Is she a bitch?’ And Ro’s like, ‘No.’ ”
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Bob Saget and Kelly Rizzo
“I think he was a little burned by L.A. girls,” she continued. “He was like, ‘I need a nice Midwestern girl.’ And so he Ro’s like, ‘No, I heard she’s really nice, actually.’ He goes, ‘I’m going to send her a DM. Can you tell her that I’m messaging her?’ ”
When Guntillake told her to look out for a message from Saget, however, Rizzo confessed that her reaction was far from enthusiastic.
“I was like, ‘Ew, why?’ ” she admitted. “I was not interested at first because it was so out of my realm of feasibility. He was a lot older. It wasn’t really my type. And it was just like, ‘Wait, the guy that I used to watch on Sundays at my grandma’s house when he was doing America’s Funniest Home Videos in a suit and he was a man, and I was like 12?’ Like that’s weird, you know?”
Rizzo then revealed that she still remembers what the actor wrote in his DM: “Hey, Kelly, Bob Saget here. I see you’re a foodie. Would love to take you out for a bunch of burgers and lobsters and invite you to a show one day.”
While she thought he seemed “nice,” Rizzo said she immediately shut down a romantic relationship with Saget in her response.
“I was like, ‘Well, maybe we can be friends,’ ” she shared, although she later changed her mind. “I kind of friend-zoned him because I thought it just wasn’t on my radar. Then we started chatting a bit and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s quirky. He’s funny. He’s interesting.’ And then I kind of started to get roped in a little. And then I came out to L.A., we hung out a bunch, and then I was like, ‘Damn it, I can’t have a crush on Bob Saget. This is weird.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, he’s pretty wonderful. Damn it.’ ”
Bob D’Amico /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty; Paul Archuleta/Getty
Bob Saget; Kelly Rizzo
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Eventually, Rizzo remembered telling herself to “just stop fighting it” and said she and Saget quickly expressed their feelings for one another. She also explained that because of their age gap — he was 59 and she was 37 — they both took the relationship seriously.
“I was like, ‘I appreciate that this is a man. He’s not full of s—,’ ” she said. “And from that moment on, it was like, ‘All right, let’s do this.’ I moved in 10 months later, and then we got engaged.”
The pair ultimately tied the knot in October 2018. Just a few months after their third wedding anniversary, on Jan. 9, 2022, Saget died from head trauma at age 65.
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