Joris Linssen (54) and his wife Rebecca expect a family expansion in the form of a foster child, he tells the Friday AD. They don’t know yet when their foster child will come to live with them, but it could be “within a few months”.
They are now waiting for the agency to assign them their new foster child. “Given our age, it will not be a baby, but rather an adolescent,” says Linssen. “Teenagers are fantastic! We are really looking forward to it.”
It is the fourth time that the couple has a foster child. The presenter and his wife also have two biological daughters. Linssen enjoys having such a large family (“with some supporters”). “When we’re all together, that’s the best thing there is. Then I’m perfectly happy.”
It took some getting used to for the presenter when their last foster daughter left home a few years ago. “Rebecca and I have both suffered a lot from empty nest syndrome,” said Linssen. “In response, we threw ourselves into our work more than ever. But that couldn’t take away the emptiness.”
‘You’re gonna love them like your own children’
Of Hello Goodbyepresenter says that they once decided to open up their home to foster children because they realized that not everyone is well off. “We were doing well together. Nice work, nice children, a nice house … all nice. But we realized: that does not apply to everyone. So we decided: we will take a foster child in.”
Then a seventeen-year-old boy came to live with them with a strict Christian background. “His presence turned out to be enormously enriching, for all of us. If you take in foster children, you just have children who you will love as much as your own children.”
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