Tom Arnold has not been on a date in nine and a half years. In an interview with Page Six published November 13, as reported by E! Online, the 67-year-old comedian said he has not been intimate with a woman in that time either.
His explanation came with a punchline. People kept telling him to date someone his own age, he said, and his answer was to ask whether they had actually seen people his age. His verdict: “We are freaking disgusting.”
Tom Arnold Reveals He Hasn’t Dated in Nearly a Decade
Nine and a half years is a specific number. Tom Arnold did not round it to “a while” or “a long time.” He counted.
Arnold has been married four times. His best-known marriage was to his Roseanne costar Roseanne Barr, from 1990 to 1994. Three more followed: Julie Lynn Champnella from 1995 to 1999, and Shelby Roos from 2002 to 2008. He married Ashley Groussman in November 2009. He and Groussman share two children. They split in 2019, and E! Online, citing People, reported the divorce was finalized the following July.
His math puts the last date somewhere before that final split. He has been single ever since.
The Comedian Finds Dating at 67 Challenging
Arnold is touring a stand-up show called My Crazy X-Wife. Women in their 60s come to it, and he told Page Six he has learned that plenty of them are funny, smart and attractive. Those are his words, more or less, and they sit oddly next to the “freaking disgusting” line.
He then turned the joke on himself. According to E! Online, he said these women are not looking for a man who used to have a lot of money and now has two little kids. He imagined their response as a flat refusal.
Two jokes are going at once here. One says people his age are unappealing. The other says he is the unappealing one. The second joke is the more revealing of the two.
Arnold Expresses Hope for Future Love
Then the bit ended. “It would be good to love somebody and be loved,” Arnold said.
He also made clear his life is not empty. He told Page Six he loves his kids so much and that there is a lot of love there.
What Nine and a Half Years Alone Looks Like at 67
Four marriages tell a story of a man who has ALWAYS gone back in. Twenty-plus years of his adult life were spent married, with short gaps between weddings. Then came a gap of nearly ten years, and counting.
Dating after a fourth divorce is different from dating after a first. Tom Arnold admits he hasn’t had s*x or been on a date in nearly a decade. He is reading his own situation the way he assumes a stranger would read it, and deciding the answer is no before anyone says it.
Humor does a lot of work for someone in that spot. “Have you seen people my age?” gets a laugh and closes the subject. It also keeps him from saying the plainer thing, which he only said at the end: he would like to love somebody.
He has not said he is looking. He has not said he is on any apps or that anyone is in the picture. What he said is that the women in his audience surprised him, that his kids fill a lot of his life, and that being loved would be good.
Nine and a half years, four ex-wives, and the most honest line in the interview was the shortest one.
Sources: E! Online
