AYYYY!

‘Happy Days’ Star Reveals His Secret to Wellness at 80

The Emmy winner made a change that significantly improved his quality of life.

Happy Days alum Henry Winkler revealed a late-in-life wellness secret that improved his relationships and career.

The 80-year-old Emmy and Golden Globe winner explained his decision to start therapy at 70 in a clip from In Depth With Graham Bensinger published to YouTube on Wednesday.

“About 10 years ago, maybe 12 years ago, I was pretty good at either figuring things out or smoothing things out in my mind or rationalizing,” Winkler told the host. “And I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

Winkler described feeling as if he was “treading water” and “going sideways,” struggling to move on from things he might once have been able to push aside.

“I needed to now empty myself out of all of the rancid garbage I had allowed to infiltrate,” Winkler, who played Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in the ‘70s and ’80s hit sitcom Happy Days, explained.

Stacey Weitzman, his wife since 1978, also noticed the change in him before he attended therapy.

“I didn’t let anybody in,” Winkler said, adding that the exceptions were his pets and his children.

Winkler and Weitzman, 78, share three children: Zoe Winkler, 46; Max Winkler, 43; and Jed Weitzman, 55, from Weitzman’s previous marriage to the late entertainment lawyer Howard Weitzman.

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“I believe that I did something that I never had, which was I listened,” the Arrested Development star said. “No matter what was said, no matter how long it took to say it, I listened to my children.”

Zoe had told Besinger in a separate interview that therapy had helped the grandfather of six to better deal with confrontation, as well as given him “a newfound confidence.”

Winkler said that prior to therapy, he was “out of balance.”

“I was out of my f---ing mind,” he said.

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One important lesson he has learned in therapy is the ability to truly listen.

“You can listen waiting to hear where do I fit in? What maybe I have to add? Or you can listen and just listen and not have to throw your point of view in unless it’s asked for,” Winkler said. “You don’t have to be an active participant every time you listen. You can literally wait. If they don’t ask, you have nothing to say.”

Winkler thanked therapy for his ability to live in the moment, and said it had made him a “much better actor” too.

“I could not have done Barry if I did not have therapy,” he said of the HBO drama, for which he won an Emmy Award in 2018.

But even if therapy had changed him, Winkler said he was still a work in progress.

“I was Swiss cheese. I was filled with holes, and I had to constantly be anxious about stepping in one of those holes,” he said. “And my job is to become a chunk of cheddar, not a hole in sight.”

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Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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