“Show off the knockers.” – Patti
As this edition of The Millionaire Matchmaker opens, Patti Stanger, Destin, and his girlfriend Rachel have lunch and basically Patti gets very judge-y about how the couple moved in together before getting married.
“That’s idiotic,” Destin tells her.
Hard agree.
Check out our full and snark-tastic Millionaire Matchmaker episode guide and updates! Trash and treasure in equal increments, we promise.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Bill & Heidi”: client intros
Heidi Cornell introduces herself via video as being 41 years old. Patti’s first reaction: “I don’t know about this,” referring to “millionairesses.” “I feel they’re never satisfied,” she adds.
Heidi then goes on to tell us that she owns a company called Young Fabulous & Broke, which took off when Neiman Marcus placed a $1 million order, “and it just flourished from there.” She also talks about the challenge of running a company, being in her 40s, and having a baby.
“41 with a baby?” Destin exclaims (as though he were learning this information for the first time).
My initial impression of Heidi is that she’s off-the-charts more grounded and normal than the average Millionaire’s Club clientele. It’s pretty refreshing, honestly.
Then Destin introduces Bill Brandes, a “Canadian millionaire.” In his video segment, Bill tells us that he’s from Vancouver, 45, and a businessman and “hotelier.” He’s worth $25 million, so he says.
Patti finds him cute and suspects that he’s going to be an “ageist”… which makes sense because Bill goes on to talk about not wanting to date women whose “eggs have dried up.”
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Bill & Heidi”: Patti meets the clients
Patti heads into the Hollywood Hills to meet Heidi at her house.
Heidi explains that she decided to have a child at the age of 39 with a willing ex-boyfriend and current close friend, who co-parent their daughter, Caroline (though the father splits his time in Los Angeles with London and Dubai, apparently).
Heidi tells Patti that she’s looking for a man who is honest, loyal, fun, spontaneous, and who likes to travel. Brad Pitt and George Clooney are her celebrity crushes, “standard LA,” as Patti puts it.
For the upcoming mixer, Patti advises Heidi to dress up, and by dress up she emphasizes, “Show off the knockers.”
Bill meanwhile lets us know that he’s rich and works in “orthopedic sales,” whatever that is, but he’s into real estate these days – including owning the Kingfisher Hotel. While this is happening, we see a super staged little segment where Bill walks into a hotel and he asks someone who might be his employee, “How are things going?” and the woman replies, “Great!”
Bill flies down from Vancouver to LA to meet up with Patti. Upon arrival, he tells her that he’s looking for “inner beauty,” which counters his earlier opinion that he wants a much younger woman. However, he’s charming with Patti so that has an impact on her feelings about him.
Back in the car, Patti has a suspicion that Bill and Heidi might actually be a great match for one another.
This is the episode when we see Patti make the decision to hire Rachel, who is dating Destin at the time. The most hilarious part is that Patti likes Rachel and mentions how many other past employees became “jealous” of Patti, and that was the reason they didn’t remain in her employ. Ah, the joys and terrors of working for a small business.
Or just a horrible boss, depending.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Bill & Heidi”: the recruiting session and mixer
Patti reemphasizes again how difficult it will be to find a straight guy in LA who could be an eligible bachelor for the 40+ Heidi.
Other highlights of the recruiting session include:
- Destin and Patti arguing over whether one of the young ladies should make her hairstyle straight or curly for the upcoming mixer
- Patti attempts to bully, Sarah, a lovely seeming British writer into getting hair extensions
- Patti explains that she wants to see “Perfect 10 looks, body, mind, and spirit or hit the dust”
- Patti tells Josie, a model, that she’s “freakish Jewish tall”
- Yet another Patti classic: she tells a young lady that she’s “off the farm” and needs to “pump up the volume” to compete for men in Los Angeles
The mixer takes place at a place called The Foundry. Bill tells the camera that he became “a little off keel” when he found out that the other millionaire is a lady millionairess. As the two chat, it does seem like the two genuinely get along quite well.
Patti asks Heidi who she wants to meet up with for the mini-date round, and she immediately says Bill, and then opts for slick back-haired Scott and some other guy named Tony as her second choices. Meanwhile, Bill does not mention Heidi as an option and instead picks Sarah and Elisha to get to know her better.
Sarah – who did not listen to Patti about the hair extensions – tells Bill that he’s looking for her soulmate, someone that she has a deep connection with. Elisha, who has a law degree and has worked for NASA (but who is listed as an accountant on screen?), and Bill also seem to get on well too.
Heidi meanwhile has nice conversations with Scott and Tony, but you can see her heart isn’t really into it, and she tells Patti that Bill is the only one that she’d like to date at this point. And after Bill’s mini-dates, he tells Patti that while he liked both ladies, that he was hoping that Heidi might be interested in him.
The two indeed seem to be well suited for one another, so it’s really nice to see them both independently become interested in one another.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Bill & Heidi”: the first date
Heidi flies up to British Columbia to meet Bill, and the two then head off to Kingfisher Oceanside Resort & Spa on Vancouver Island. Not a bad way to kick off a date for two millionaires, I suppose.
The resort does look pretty great, and shoutout to the gorgeous Pacific Northwest, where your humble narrator resides these days.
They get into bathing suits and then go through this “hydropath” thing, which is like a series of whirlpool baths and areas with water of different temperatures. It actually looks pretty amazing, I have to say.
Things take a romantic turn in a hot tub with a waterfall next to it, whereupon Bill and Heidi get their first kiss on. Bill played everything precisely right by bringing her to the massive hotel and spa that he owns, as it turns out.
Over a lunch of mussels, the couple has a flirty yet substantive get to know you conversation. However, Heidi didn’t seem to appreciate that Bill probed a few times to find out how old she is (talking about kingfishing!).
That being said, Bill tells the camera that in meeting Heidi, he realized that age doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker in embarking on a relationship. He also says that the date went perfectly and wants to see Heidi again.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Bill & Heidi”: post-dates upshot
Patti and Chelsea call Heidi after the date, and Heidi relays that she loved the date and that a kiss was involved. She also mentioned that she just got off the phone with him.
Then Patti calls Bill via video chat, and Bill mentions right away that he’s about to head off on a two-week yacht trip so won’t be able to see Heidi for a while.
“That’s BS,” Patti blurts back. “Okay? No offense.”
“That’s the reason you’re single,” she adds.
“As soon as I get off the boat, I’m coming to see her,” Bill eventually promises Patti.
The end of episode captions then reveals: “Heidi and Bill continue to carry on a long-distance relationship. Heidi still hasn’t told Bill her age.”
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Bill & Heidi”: where are they now?
A Reality Tea post from 2011 reports that Heidi and Bill stopped seeing each other after Bill would “use her for flings” and not see her for weeks at a time. It also reports that Heidi was planning to marry an Australian guy.
The About page on the Young Fabulous & Broke website lists Heidi’s name as Heidi Cornell-McKenna, and there’s a picture of her with an adorable child. So here’s hoping all is going well with her and her family these days.
Some stats and info about The Millionaire Matchmaker – “Bill & Heidi”
TV SHOW – The Millionaire Matchmaker
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 2
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Bravo
AIR DATE – February 19th, 2009
GENRE – Reality TV, Dating Shows, Trashtastic TV
STARS – Patti Stanger, Destin Pfaff, Rachel Federoff, Heidi Cornell, Bill Brandes
GOOGLE PLAY DESCRIPTION – Matchmaker Patti Stanger hires Destin’s girlfriend Rache, as an assistant to answer phones and coordinate the countless club submissions they receive daily. Now that she has the two longtime lovebirds right under her nose, Patti does everything she can to encourage Destin to pop the question. Patti gets an unexpected surprise when Chelsea tells her about a new client, who happens to be a lady millionaire. Heidi is drop-dead gorgeous and the CEO of a high end fashion label called Young, Fabulous and Broke, available in such stores as Neiman Marcus, Planet Blue and Fred Segal. Patti’s other client this week is tall, dark and handsome Bill, a 45-year-old Canadian hotel executive who has flown into Los Angeles from Canada just to meet with Patti. Although he’s charming, Bill wants children and has no interest in dating a woman even close to his own age.