Show comeback for Hape Kerkeling too? “Who knows…”

Hape Kerkeling (59), bestselling author and legendary TV entertainer, has all but ruled out a TV comeback with regular shows à la Stefan Raab. In the Friday evening TV talk show “3 nach 9” on Radio Bremen (where Kerkeling once began his TV career), the comedian said in reference to Raab's appearance with Regina Halmich on Saturday last week: “Well, I'm certainly not going to be a retired athlete in the face. I'm not doing that.”

Kerkeling continued: “I don't plan to, but three days ago I had a nightmare that I was hosting a Saturday evening with Heidi Klum.” Grinning, he sent “best wishes” into the camera and then, in response to Giovanni di Lorenzo's question as to whether he might do the Raab role, which is now being used again on RTL after almost ten years of abstinence from hosting, he said: “Who knows.”

New book by Kerkeling

First of all, his new book “Give me some time” is being published in the next few days. In it, Kerkeling, who comes from Recklinghausen, does genealogical research and says, for example, that he could be a great-grandson of the English King Edward VII (1841-1910).

Kerkeling told the Süddeutsche Zeitung about this headline-grabbing thesis: “Of course I was aware of the fact that people would think: OK, now he's crazy. Nightingale, I hear you walking. It's completely legitimate that question marks arise.” Incidentally, he is “not completely free of these question marks.” At some point, however, he decided to write it down.

Kerkeling, who has not done any shows in recent years but has written books or made documentaries and fictional series, was a big sketch and TV star in the 80s and 90s. In the new book, the story of the royal origins is only a small passage, Kerkeling emphasized in the talk show and in the SZ interview.

For example, it is also about the AIDS death of his beloved Amsterdam friend Duncan, who died of AIDS after a two-year relationship. There is a trauma that needs to be worked through, Kerkeling told the Süddeutsche newspaper, “which is the trauma of very many people.” “Because millions of people have died in a very short space of time, especially in the gay scene. Actually, it is only today that I dare to realize what a drama it was – that it had the dimensions of a major war.”