The real-life love story behind Netflix smash hit that’s the new When Harry Met Sally: Prince Harry’s ‘surrogate father’, his daughter and a very unlikely romance

It has been called the most feel-good onscreen romance since When Harry Met Sally, topping the Netflix streaming charts and putting a wistful smile on the faces of women everywhere.

Nobody Wants This features a relationship between an outspoken female sex podcaster with not a single religious bone in her body and a deeply sensitive rabbi, who could be the ultimate ‘opposites attract’ couple. Their chemistry crackles despite their differences – and their families’ disapproval.

The fact that rabbi Noah, played by The OC’s Adam Brody, also happens to be super sexy – leading him to be dubbed the ‘hot rabbi’ in the vein of Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s ‘hot priest’ in her hit series Fleabag – has certainly helped viewing figures, too.

And there’s another layer to people’s fascination with the new hit series.

Nobody Wants This, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, has become a hit on Netflix

If the unlikely story has a surprising ring of authenticity, it’s because it’s based on the endearing real-life love story of one of Hollywood’s most well-connected women.

For the creator of Nobody Wants This is Erin Foster, the podcaster daughter of model Rebecca Dyer and music supremo David Foster – a man who has been famously described as a ‘surrogate father’ to Prince Harry and is a neighbour in Montecito.

He helped the Duke of Sussex launch his new life in North America, including assisting him in finding the Vancouver Island mansion where the Sussexes first took refuge when they left the Royal Family in March 2020.

A legendary record producer and songwriter for everyone from Michael Jackson to Whitney Houston – her hit song I Have Nothing is one of his – there are few famous musicians 74-year-old Foster hasn’t worked with. Erin remembers meeting Madonna – whom she idolised as a schoolgirl – at her dad’s studio.

Her celebrity connections are far deeper than the merely professional, though. Her father has been married five times, and those weddings have furnished Erin, 42, with a complex web of celebrity family members.

For example, five years after divorcing Erin’s mother in 1986, Foster married his third wife, songwriter Linda Thompson.

Linda’s previous husband was athlete Bruce Jenner – who has since transitioned to become Caitlyn Jenner – with whom she had two sons Brandon and Brody Jenner.

And Brandon and Brody are not only Erin’s stepbrothers, but also the stepbrothers of Kim Kardashian and her sisters, thanks to Jenner’s subsequent marriage to Kris Kardashian. Brandon and Brody were regulars on the show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

Foster next wed fourth wife, Dutch model Yolanda Hadid in 2011 – and the Foster clan expanded to include the supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, who remain close to Erin despite their parents’ divorce after four years of marriage.

Indeed, Erin once commented about their tight-knit relationship, saying: ‘The kids don’t get divorced, just the parents do.’

Then, in 2019, Foster married singer and actress Katharine McPhee, who, though, two years younger than Erin, provides a connection to Prince Harry, as she went to the same Catholic high school as Meghan Markle, and starred in musicals with her there.

Friends of Erin’s are, as you might expect, suitably showbiz and include Friends actress Courteney Cox and Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

One might imagine that, with such a star-studded pedigree, Erin was destined for an A-list marriage but, as reflected in the plot of Nobody Wants This, it turned out to be very different.

Rather than a celebrity, she fell in love with a man whose background could not have been more different to her own.

Simon Tikhman, on whom rabbi Noah is based, was raised in a traditional Jewish household by his Russian immigrant parents, who had been forced to leave the Soviet Union in 1979 after suffering religious persecution.

Erin first spotted Simon at the gym they both used in Los Angeles, recalling: ‘We would see each other every other day at 9am. I just started to notice him and [was] like, “Who is that cute guy doing pull-ups and smiling at me?”‘

She then tracked down Simon’s private Instagram account and the pair began exchanging messages.

After being impressed with the wholesome pictures of his parents that he posted, she made a move on the businessman, who co-founded an artist management company and record label.

David Foster has been called a ‘surrogate father’ to Prince Harry, and has helped him start his new life in America since quitting the Royal Family

But such was his devotion to his parents, and his determination to carry on the family’s lineage – children are only considered Jewish if their mother is also Jewish – that he told Erin on their very first date in 2018: ‘Whoever I marry, she has to be Jewish.’

He later explained: ‘I really respect my parents and know the adversity they went through because they were Jewish. I wouldn’t want to disappoint them.’

Erin’s reaction when he later directly asked her to convert so they could be together was as heartfelt as that shown by her onscreen character, Joanne, who is played by Kristen Bell: ‘You want me? Great. It would be fun to be part of something.’

And so, while the final episode of Nobody Wants This finishes with a cliffhanger that strongly suggests a second series, in real life, love conquered all, as the rabbi who married Erin and Simon told the Mail.

‘The series is a window into one particular difference that two people in love share and that’s religious tradition, but it’s also about the fact that we all come from different kinds of families,’ said Rabbi Beau Shapiro, who officiated the ceremony in December 2019.

He explained: ‘It’s a story that’s relatable because most couples don’t talk about their differences straight away and that can lead to problems down the road, but the characters of Noah and Joanne are forced to confront theirs from the outset.’

On-screen Noah is the consummate gentleman, opening car doors for Joanne and carrying her bags, and Erin has since confessed that part of the attraction to her husband was down to how ‘old-fashioned’ he is.

Certainly, until she and Simon got together her romantic life had been chequered.

For example, Erin revealed she had dated a series of ‘s***** men’ and, early in her career, had worked on a script about her dating life called How To Raise A Boyfriend.

She also dated women and started a nine-month romance with British celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson, sister of producer Mark, in 2011.

Nobody Wants This tells the story of Joanne and her rabbi boyfriend Noah, and was inspired by Erin Foster’s own love life

This inspired a script called Lezzie ‘about a girl who becomes a lesbian’.

Lasting love continued to elude her, even after she co-wrote the reality show spoof Barely Famous in 2015 with her elder sister Sara, in which they poked fun at themselves as semi-celebrities in Hollywood.

After the show was cancelled, she and Sara launched the ironically titled ‘The World’s First Podcast’, where conversations ranged from friendship and sister dynamics to dating, anxiety, ageing, motherhood and infertility.

No surprise, then, that in Nobody Wants This, Joanne jointly hosts her podcast with her sister Morgan.

Erin and Simon married on New Year’s Eve in 2019, in Nashville, after she had taken an eight-week Choosing Judaism course with her husband and converted to the Jewish faith.

Rabbi Shapiro, from the Skirball Cultural Center, said Erin studied with him for her conversion and that their wedding was ‘spectacular and meaningful’.

Simon later said of Erin’s adoption of Judaism: ‘For someone to do that for you … [it] is the biggest thing you could ever do. I’ll always be grateful for Erin.’

Meanwhile, Erin says: ‘Simon and Judaism: they both represented family to me. It wasn’t something I did because Simon [wanted] me to do it, it’s something I did because it really felt like the right way to start a life together.’

And, also, because she deeply loved him. As she says: ‘I love Simon. And I can’t believe he loves me back.’

Her devotion to her husband is reflected in the character of thoughtful and gentle rabbi Noah.

‘My husband is someone who can’t make you feel bad; like, it’s not possible,’ she says. ‘He just shines this sweetness and goodness and makes people feel seen, and makes you laugh.’

The series, she says, is a ‘love letter’ to her ‘muse’ husband.

Despite this, she clearly didn’t warn him she was writing a show based on their own experience.

When she told him she had sold the show to Netflix, she said: ‘He was like, “Sorry, you sold a show about what?”. I immediately panicked. I hadn’t even considered it [being a problem]. To me, I was like, “Oh my God, I’m taking our story and turning it into something cool. You’re welcome.” And he had a different point of view.’

Erin Foster (second from right) with her father David, stepmother Katharine McPhee and husband Simon Tikhman

‘I’m from a very private family,’ Simon commented. ‘My mum would always tell us stories about how if you said the wrong thing in the Soviet Union as a Jew, you could be taken to jail.’

Thankfully, Erin’s in-laws were highly supportive of Nobody Wants This, even if Erin’s idea of trying to preserve her husband’s privacy was to make her leading man a rabbi.

As Erin admits: ‘My husband is really private. Being married to someone like me is his personal hell.’

Their marriage hasn’t been all plain sailing: while they welcomed a daughter, Noa, five months ago, they conceived only after enduring 20 rounds of IVF.

‘At some point in the process, I just went numb. I stopped feeling the highs (there weren’t any) or the lows (there were too many). I stopped reacting after bad news or letting anyone talk to me about it,’ Erin said.

Of course, the other striking difference between Simon and Erin – which she has acknowledged herself – is that his own upbringing was far more traditional than hers, with his parents remaining loyally together over decades, while hers split after four years.

‘Simon’s parents… had been married for 40-something years,’ she said. ‘And I come from this very entertainment-centred Los Angeles family with lots of marriages and divorces.

‘We couldn’t have been from more different worlds, and those different world views really put us in a unique position to have… not conflict, but challenges moving forward and starting a life together.’

Whatever their differences, everyone can agree it’s the recipe for a hit romantic comedy.