Hélène Hendriks is the only TV presenter who stands while her guests are seated. The reason? The intense and radical back surgery she underwent this year. What are the prospects? “I’m still recovering.”
It was a horrible year for Hélène Hendriks on a personal level. She has a love affair with a man who is almost seventy, so it was the last thing people expected that she would be the first to end up in a wheelchair. Yet it happened this year: due to bizarre back pain, the… rising star of SBS 6 simply no longer run.
Rigid plank
Due to a very drastic back operation, Hélène had to miss her TV child De Oranjezomer all summer. Ultimately, she was only able to present the last two weeks, but only standing, because sitting hurts. Now she has been back since yesterday evening with the winter version, but we also see her in De Oranjewinter.
Will Hélène ever be able to sit again in her life? “I can dance lightly. I’m not a stiff plank,” she says Veronica Super guide. “I’m still recuperating every day, which requires quite a bit of discipline. Sitting and standing are fine, I alternate. But it’s not all that interesting. Everyone has something to do now and then.”
Zero pressure
Hélène is very pleased that she was able to recover so quietly in the summer. She is grateful to John de Mol. “When I was out for the summer, Talpa proved itself to be a very nice employer. There was zero pressure for my return.”
“Then you can say: that’s normal. But I think an employer should get something in return, so I indicated that I would like to make up for those missed hours. I was then asked if I thought The Winner Takes It All would be fun.”
Show trap
And it doesn’t stop at that studio show, as it was recently announced. “Yes, not much later John asked me for the Staatsloterij show. ‘Shouldn’t you first wait and see how I do the other program?’ I laughed. But he apparently has confidence in it. We’ll see if that’s right.”
Hélène is therefore the new Wendy van Dijk on SBS 6. Has Wendy explained to her how to get off the show stairs? “There is no show trap, fortunately. I am still recovering from my operation, so that would not be a good idea,” she concludes.