Heleen van Royen is no longer allowed to participate in Today Inside now that she is starting to work as a table lady in the talk show Khalid & Sophie. “That has to do with competition.”
It is not a great loss, but it is striking: Heleen van Royen has received a real Today Inside ban. She is no longer allowed to participate in the most watched talk show in the Netherlands, because she has taken a permanent position at Khalid & Sophie. The writer is making her debut there tonight as a dinner lady.
VI ban
Taking on this TV job comes with a number of conditions, Heleen tells BNRs The Friday Move, the radio program of Wilfred Genee. “I will be a sidekick to Khalid & Sophie. September 21 will be my first time there. But then I won’t come to you anymore, to VI. That is prohibited.”
Wilfred surprised: “Why not?”
Heleen: “That’s a non-competition clause, I think.”
Wilfred: “You don’t mean that?”
Childish
Heleen really means it. “No that is not allowed.”
Wilfred thinks it’s lame. “How childish that is. I mean, you belong to everyone, right?”
Heleen: “Yes, that’s how I like to see it myself. But that was the condition.”
Wilfred: “Well, I’ll tell Johan. Johan is very variable in this regard. He thinks you are a very nice, beautiful woman, he always says, so you can just come and sit with us.”
Say nothing
Heleen takes it into consideration. “I just can’t say anything. Come and say nothing. That might be for the best then. Just a nice smile.”
Wilfred jokes: “Well, who knows, I’ll just suggest it.”
On to politics: what will Heleen vote for? “I vote for the craziest things. I’m really a floating voter. The craziest thing? I think maybe Volt21, even though I barely knew what it was. I thought: well, but it sounds good.”
Volt21
Volt21, what kind of party is that? Does she mean Volt or JA21? “There you have it! That’s how bad I am. No, then it was Volt. Certainly. Yes, well I find it really difficult. There are also too many parties. I prefer fewer parties. That it is clearer.”
Heleen voted for D66 in the last elections. “When everyone was hating Kaag, I voted D66. That was strategic, yes. Yeah, then I thought, get it all back and forth. Then I was really angry, so I voted D66.”