Step aside, Aladdin! Barbara Eden, the woman who made the world dream of genies, is celebrating her 92nd birthday on August 23, and the nonagenarian looks fantastic!

Eden–who turned fans into shameless bottle shiners hoping for their own wish-granting blonde–is still adored almost 60 years since she first appeared on I Dream of Jeannie.

But, while she was able to strike a pose and make magic happen on screen, in real life, she was unable to save her son, who died of a heroin overdose in 2001.

Born in the Great Depression, Barbara Eden, 92 as of August 23, 2023, turned poverty into luxury when, in 1956, she started appearing in film (A Private’s Affair, Twelve Hours to Kill) and TV (The Jonny Carson Show, I love Lucy).

In 1960, she played to international audiences when she cast was alongside the “King of Rock and Roll,” Elvis Presley in the western, Flaming Star.

And then, in 1965, the stunning blonde played Jeannie, a beautiful genie that was set free by astronaut and US Air Force Captain, Tony Nelson.

Eden captured the hearts of fans with her impressive portrayal of the magical creature that she played for the five-season run of the fantasy sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, with Larry Hagman playing her love interest, Nelson.

The same year she was reaching super stardom as Jeannie, Eden and her husband, actor Michael Ansara (known for his starring in role in the 60s series Broken Arrow) had a son, Matthew Ansara, who was born August 29, 1965.

When Matthew was nine, his parents ended their 15-year marriage, a strike that Eden, who married two more times, says sent her son on the wrong path, towards drugs.

The Harper Valley PTA star explained that she first noticed Matthew was in trouble in 1984, when at 19, he moved in with his father after she remarried. Returning after she divorced a second time, Eden said he was sleeping a lot and lied about being enrolled in college.

“Matthew never told Mike and me that he was using heroin—he didn’t want to hurt us. But we figured it out because he had been acting sluggish, losing weight, staying out all night. I insisted that he enter a rehab center, and I let him come back home when he came out a month later.”

The star of The Stepford Children continued, “But he started using again. The professionals told us that if your child is using drugs, he has become the drug: He is no longer your child, and he no longer has a home with you. So, I locked him out when he was 20, which was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”

Matthew, who started using drugs when he was only 10, spent the next 12 years in and out of rehab, his parents connecting to help him through.

“When he visited us, sometimes he’d laugh and say, ‘Here I am, better lock up everything.’ But when he was sober, he’d tell us, ‘I’m so sorry. I love you more than anyone in the world,’” Eden said of her son, who often stole their property when he visited.

During a brief remission when he was 27, Matthew married and studied creative writing at UCLA, but “the cycle began again,” and his wife left.

Recalling when things turned for the worse, Eden said she confronted her son, and “he got angry, threw things and stomped out.” Finding Matthew after a months-long search, Eden learned he’d spent most of the time living on the streets.

“One day, soon after they separated, he called me, sounding half dead, and said, ‘Mom, I’m sick.’ Mike’s wife and another friend drove with me to a bad part of Venice, Calif., and we found him in his apartment, unconscious from an overdose.”

Describing his living conditions as “filthy,” Eden continued. “He weighed 200 lbs., but we three women got him up and to the car and took him to the hospital, which saved his life.”

At 29 he was diagnosed with clinical depression and was on medication, that didn’t help.

When he was 31, Matthew was clean again and following the path of his parents, he had a starring role in the 2001 film To Protect and Serve, and a supporting role in Con Games, that was released posthumously the same year.

In September that year, he had plans to wed a “wonderful girl.”

“One day he told me, ‘Life is great, Mom. I can’t believe I spent so many years not being awake to how green the trees are.’” Eden said.

Barbara Eden son cause of death

Soon after that conversation, on June 26 at 3 a.m. Eden was jolted from her sleep when a phone call came through about her son,

Six hours before the call, police found 35-year-old Matthew, an amateur bodybuilder, slumped over the steering wheel of his truck, where cops also pulled vials of anabolic steroids that he used to bulk up for competitions.

Autopsy results showed that Matthew’s cause of death was accidental drug overdose.

“Then he was dead. He had shot up with a dose of unusually pure heroin, and it was too much for his heart,” Eden said. “Even when he was getting in shape, he did it like an addict—obsessively. He was unable to do anything in moderation.”

Mourning the death of her only child, the author and singer, married to Jon Eicholtz since 1991, is still looking for answers.

“Matthew took it horribly. He wanted his mommy and daddy to stay together. If I had to do it over, I would have waited until he was older. But then I remind myself that so many kids from divorced homes don’t become addicts.” She continued, “He won a lot of battles. But he lost his personal war.”

The senior Ansara, who at 91 died in 2013 from complications related to Alzheimer’s, is buried next to his son at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

As for Eden, who retired Jeannie’s pink harem suit, she can be seen on TV shows like Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition and the 2019 film My Adventures with Santa, where she plays Mrs. Claus. Her last stage production was 2019’s Love Letters.

First, we’d like to wish the beautiful Barbara Eden a very happy birthday!

Next, we cannot imagine a parent’s pain of losing a child and we are so sorry for her loss. If someone you know is struggling with addictions, please contact your local alcohol or drug abuse hotline–it could save their life.

Please share this story and let’s give Eden some warm wishes and the love she deserves!

Despite declining masculinity when she changed her gender to become a woman, A trans influencer slammed society, boldly suggesting that men today are too sensitive and that they need to stop expecting the “princess treatment.”

Arizona’s Ali C. Lopez is no stranger to controversy. As a proud, plus-size transgender woman and social media influencer, she fearlessly shared her journey, captivating audiences with her raw honesty and bold perspective.

Lopez’ popularity was launched after an appearance on the Whatever podcast, where topics like feminism, gender roles and traditional values are fiercely debated.

Her candid responses during the podcast, particularly when asked to rate her attractiveness, sparked online attention.

Lopez famously declared herself “a fat f***ing ten,” a statement that led to the creation of the now-viral meme “Gorlock the Destroyer.”

Though the moniker initially stung, Lopez admits she’s trying to embrace it but still finds the Gorlock label unsettling.

“If I’m 100% honest, there are days where it still bothers me that I get called that…There was even a time I was like, ‘should I just even embrace [‘Gorlock the Destroyer’] at this point?’ I don’t even care,” Lopez told Fox News Digital.

But, the 25-year-old is enjoying the attention. “I feel like [it’s]… a little bit of an out-of-body experience, or you’re just, like, there’s, ‘No way that’s me.’ It’s a crazy feeling. And honestly, I’m still fairly new to [being viral],” she said about her online fame. “There’s good, bad, exciting, nervous. It’s just all over the place.”

‘Princess treatment’

The hype surrounding Lopez doesn’t stop at her Gorlock identity, and her 502,000 TikTok followers can’t get enough of her content, many posts that collect millions of likes.

From beauty tutorials and lifestyle tips to heartfelt videos on her transition, Lopez – who calls herself a “certified baddie” – offers a unique blend of relatability and inspiration. However, it’s her candid discussions about dating and relationships that have sparked the most heated debates.

The transgender woman has been vocal about her challenges and observations when it comes to dating, faulting the decline in traditional masculinity, which she says impacts modern relationships.

“It’s getting out of control,” Lopez told Fox News, explaining she wants to find a man who can handle tasks that in the past were labelled as traditionally masculine.

But that’s not easy to find these days, according to Lopez.

“At least for me, you better be able to do more than what my dad can do. Because if I have to call my dad to do something for me and not you. Why are you here?” Lopez continued, “I feel like a lot of [men] need to start being [men]. When it comes to the male world…men nowadays are expecting princess treatment.”

She adds, “I just see a lot of men expecting women in the relationship…to go above and beyond and like them to almost do nothing…I also love when there is a little bit of a gender role in a relationship. I’m not a big fan of toxic masculinity [but] I like when there’s a little bit of that, like ‘I’m the man and I’m going to take charge.’”

What people are saying

Lopez’s views on the world were met with some praise and a lot of hostility.

One netizen writes, “Well – I don’t quite know where to start – why would anyone be influenced by anything coming from this person – maybe she should indulge in some inner reflection about dating issues.”

A second, associating her physique to Humpty Dumpty, shares, “…and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men…”

@al.weeezy♬ Tu Boda – Oscar Maydon & Fuerza Regida

In the comments section of a TikTok clip that has 9.8 million views, one troll references Jabba the Hutt from the Star Wars franchise: “Jabba will not make it past 40 with that lifestyle,” the troll writes. A second adds, “The confidence is amazing. Jabba I’m proud of you.”

Meanwhile, others jumped in and defended the plus-sized trans influencer.

“Girl, you look great! Don’t let these ppl bring you down!!!” writes one, while a second shares, “I’m sorry people are so mean you’re so pretty.”

Ali C. Lopez is more than just a social media influencer – she’s a trailblazer challenging societal norms and her story is a reminder of the strength it takes to be unapologetically yourself, especially in a world that often resists change.

She burst onto TV screens as a young, blonde woman with a charm that captivated everyone. But behind the scenes, her life was anything but glamorous.

Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother, she was left to fend for herself and her siblings, surviving on food stamps. As if that wasn’t enough, she would later face a life-threatening battle with cancer.

Hollywood may seem like a place where fame runs in the family, but for this remarkable woman, life was anything but glamorous.

Born in 1961 in sunny Santa Monica, this famous woman’s childhood was far from the picture-perfect dream.

Her parents were high school sweethearts deeply in love. However, two years later, her mother sent her and her sisters to live with their paternal grandmother. The TV star’s grandmother was a hard-working, coupon-clipping cafeteria worker who managed to create a warm and joyful home, always filled with the comforting scent of something freshly baked.

But soon, everything changed.

Drug addiction

After four years, the mother reappeared with a new husband, and the family relocated to Washington, where life spiraled into chaos.

At just 11 years old, the future TV personality found herself thrust into the role of caretaker for her four younger siblings. Her mother, Vicky, was not only physically abusive but also a prescription drug addict who spent most days in bed.

The TV star was left to manage cooking, cleaning, and schoolwork for the family while scraping by on welfare and food stamps. With limited money, even a few dollars could mean the difference between eating or going hungry for the last days of the month.

”On the way home [from the store], I had to ride very carefully so that the full plastic bags hanging from my handlebars wouldn’t swing and break the eggs,” she shared in her memoir.

In later interviews, she shared how embarrassing it was to go to the store and pull out the book of food stamps.

”I remember standing in line at the grocery store with the food stamps and it was mortifying for me, because the girl – she was like the popular girl in school – [and] her parents were the rich family [and] they owned the dairy,” the star recalled while speaking with Daily Mail in 2024.

Raking leaves and picking berries

But despite all the struggles and challenges, the young girl tried to make the best of her situation. And perhaps it was during these tough times that her creativity, work ethic, and entrepreneurial spirit were born — the very qualities that would later propel her to have her own TV show, become a producer, and author multiple books.

As a young teenager, she earned extra money however she could — raking leaves, picking berries, and even selling handmade potholders for $1 a pair.

Sadly, the real struggle came when she could no longer protect her siblings from their mother’s destructive behavior. One evening, after calling 911 when her mother swallowed a bottle of pills, things escalated. According to her memoir, her mother beat her so badly that her ”eyes were swollen” and her body was ”covered in welts.”

Her stepfather, who had moved back in, also crossed inappropriate lines, leaving behind wounds that were both physical and emotional.

Yet through it all, this future TV icon, who would one day become a household name.

Who is she?

And now, let’s unveil who we’re talking about…

If you haven’t guessed it yet – it’s Sandra Lee, the popular American television chef and home decorating specialist.

Many people likely recognize Sandra from the hit show Semi-Homemade Cooking, which premiered on Food Network in 2003. The series aired for 15 seasons and became incredibly popular, largely thanks to Sandra’s unique “semi-homemade” cooking concept, which she describes as using 70 percent packaged products and 30 percent fresh ingredients.

Her colorful personality and charm left a lasting impression, earning her a spot on Newsweek’s list of TV’s most successful female chefs. Now 58 years old, she has authored 27 books, and her show has been broadcast in 63 countries.

On top of that, she’s launched her own production company and lifestyle magazine, showcasing just how multifaceted this vibrant chef truly is. In her trophy case, she boasts a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle/Culinary Show Host, won in 2012 for her work.

Much of Sandra’s inspiration came from her years spent with her grandmother. It was in her kitchen that Sandra’s passion for cooking and baking first ignited.

”My grandmother was a great cake baker and was fantastic with icings, and that was kind of her gift to everybody at her church. She would do the wedding cakes and she would do the baby shower cakes and she would do all the special birthday cakes, and she wouldn’t allow anybody to pay her for this,” Sandra says.

Sandra Lee partner

As we’ve seen, Sandra definitely has a fascinating backstory, but her love life has also featured some hot and talked-about romances. In 2001, she married philanthropist Bruce Karatz, and during the marriage, Sandra converted to Judaism.

Life with Karatz was a far cry from the harsh reality of her upbringing. Suddenly, she found herself living in a mansion in Bel Air, driving a Mercedes, and holding season tickets to the Lakers. She attended parties on P Diddy’s yacht and vacationed in St. Tropez. Her friends included celebrities like Mary Hart, Arianna Huffington, and art consultant Barbara Guggenheim.

The marriage ended in 2005, and shortly after, Sandra began dating Andrew Cuomo, who would later serve as the Governor of New York.

The two met at a garden party, where Cuomo, fit and charming, arrived with his three daughters in tow, which immediately caught Sandra’s attention. Initially, she tried to set Cuomo up with some of her friends, as he was emerging from a difficult divorce from Kerry Kennedy.

However, it didn’t take long for both of them to realize they wanted to be together instead. They dated secretly for over a year, keeping their relationship under wraps from friends and family.

Eventually, the secrecy became too much, and they publicly acknowledged their romance, moving into Sandra’s home in Chappaqua, New York.Unlike her first marriage, Sandra noted that life with Cuomo was anything but glamorous.

”We do not have full-time help,” she told New York Magazine and added: ”We are normal people. Our basement flooded this morning. Two weeks ago, the snow melted and came in between the floors, and we had buckets in the living room.”

When Cuomo became the 56th Governor of New York in 2011, Sandra took on the role of the state’s de facto first lady. While she largely maintained a low profile during most of his first two terms, she later emerged as a passionate advocate for cancer screening after her own battle with the disease.

Sandra Lee cancer diagnosis

In 2015, Sandra Lee was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately, the disease was caught early, but her journey to becoming cancer-free was filled with challenges.

She underwent both a lumpectomy and a double mastectomy, with Governor Cuomo by her side, taking time off to support her through this difficult period.

Unfortunately, she suffered an infection in one breast related to the surgeries, requiring her to be on intravenous drugs for three months. By the end of 2015, Sandra announced that she was cancer-free. However, in March 2022, she underwent a successful hysterectomy.

The breast cancer experience has undoubtedly been incredibly taxing for Sandra, but, as she has done many times before, she turned it into something constructive.

During Cuomo’s governorship, she became a strong advocate for cancer awareness, pushing for the passage of the $91 million ”No Excuses” law in New York, which expanded breast cancer screening and eliminated insurance co-pays for mammograms.

Sandra Lee children

After more than a decade together, Sandra Lee and Andrew Cuomo announced that their relationship had come to an end.

“Over the recent past, we have realized that our lives have gone in different directions and our romantic relationship has turned into a deep friendship,” Mr. Cuomo and Ms. Lee, a Food Network personality and author, said in 2019.

During her relationship with Cuomo, Sandra grew close to his three daughters from his marriage to Ms. Kennedy. While Sandra doesn’t have children of her own —a choice she has made — she has poured her love and resources into her siblings and their children. According to New York Magazine, she has generously provided for her relatives, gifting them cars, houses, hockey lessons, and even covering college tuition.

Why she loves Cher

Today, Sandra Lee is 58 years old, but looking at her recent photos, it’s hard to believe it. She still looks amazing and healthy and is always so timeless and classic.

As of 2024, Sandra Lee has been reported to be dating Algerian-born actor Abdulwahab Benyoucef, professionally known as Ben Youcef, since March 2021.

Excitingly, she is currently starring in a new show on Netflix, Blue Ribbon Baking Championship. The series aims to find the best bakers from state fairs across the country, as they compete for the coveted blue ribbon and a grand prize of $100,000. The series is something Sandra has wanted to do for a long time, and finally, Netflix took the plunge to make it happen.

”I presented the Blue Ribbon Baking Championship to Food Network all those years ago and they didn’t buy it and I was like, “Are you kidding me?” It was crazy, and I was like the hottest thing on that network at the time, and I just couldn’t believe it!,” she told Daily Mail.

In addition to her new series, Sandra is deeply involved with QVC’s Age of Possibility platform, which aims to empower women over the age of 50—a cause she is passionate about.

“I think what happens when you turn 50 is that you realize—if you’re lucky—you’re halfway through, if not more. Your body is changing, and you have to pay attention to all those things.”

Speaking with Daily Mail, Sandra was asked if she feels any stress or pressure to look good while on camera. In the appearance-focused world of Hollywood, it’s certainly a relevant question, but Sandra provided a great response.

”There’s a reason why we all like wash our face and put lotion on and put makeup on. I don’t think any of us are going down without a fight. I’m in the Cher camp – whatever makes you feel hot, do it!’”, she urged.

Reflecting on Sandra Lee’s fascinating life journey, it’s clear that her road to success is a tapestry of resilience, creativity, and dedication.

From living on food stamps to her battle with breast cancer to her vibrant role as a culinary icon and advocate for women over 50, Sandra embodies the spirit of empowerment and positivity!

Share her life story on Facebook if you also think she deserves to be celebrated!