While fans are currently mourning the loss of Gilbert Gottfried — the edgy comedian with the iconic voice — his wife is mourning the loss of her “gentle genius.” In 2013, Dara Gottfried told the New York Times that upon meeting Gilbert, “I knew I’d never find anyone else like him.” In true fashion, Gilbert quickly interjected, “Most people are hoping that they never find anyone like me.”
The story goes that the couple met while at a Grammy Awards party in New York City. After an awkward encounter wherein Dara dropped her food on a table and Gilbert promptly picked it up and put it on his plate, Dara knew there was something special about him. “I looked at him, like, ‘Who is this guy?'” she recalled. “He looked sad and lost and childlike. I thought he was adorable.”
Alas, over the years, she became increasingly aware that not everyone was as receptive to her husband’s antics. Following a controversial joke Gilbert made about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011, he was promptly fired from his longstanding voice-over gig as the AFLAC duck. “It was so hard,” Dara revealed. “I just wanted to yell out to everybody, ‘My husband’s a good man!’ He didn’t mean any harm.”
Nicki
