Who is Heidi Van Pelt? All About Taran Noah Smith’s Ex-Wife

Who is Heidi Van Pelt? All About Taran Noah Smith’s Ex-Wife

Heidi Van Pelt is an American vegan chef and businesswoman who bought well-known when she bought married to the favored nineties youngster actor, Noah Taran Smith.

Taran famously performed Mark Taylor within the tv sitcom, Dwelling Enchancment which aired from 1991 via 1999. Getting married to Taran undoubtedly introduced extra fame to Heidi than her cooking profession did and shortly she turned the topic of numerous discussions within the media due to it. One among these discussions bordered on their age distinction.

Sadly, the couple finally parted methods, and following that, she turned the article of extra gossip due to the character of their divorce. These points and extra made Heidi Van Pelt extra infamous than well-known. She pale from the limelight nearly instantly after her break up from Taran. And though she lives a personal life now, curiosity has gotten the perfect of us and right here we’re with some fascinating info about her.

Who’s Heidi Van Pelt?

Heidi Van Pelt was born on July 11, 1968, in Missouri, United States, to lower-class dad and mom. She is the one youngster of her dad and mom and as outcome, she grew up alone and largely remoted. When she was solely a yr outdated, her dad and mom bought divorced and she or he ended up being raised single-handedly by her lone mom, Marsha Duncan.

You may say that Heidi had a fairly robust childhood. Her mom, Marsha, needed to work a number of jobs, together with as a metropolis clerk, all to have the ability to deal with her youngster, and so Heidi didn’t obtain a lot affection as a child. She went to the elementary faculty in her native neighborhood and subsequently continued her training at BluePrint Excessive College, which she attended for a couple of years earlier than shifting on to Oak Park Excessive College from the place she later graduated. Likewise, Heidi attended a number of faculties earlier than she finally obtained a level. First, she enrolled at Stephens School in Columbia as a result of she wished to review Design and Vogue however she by no means completed the diploma program for unknown causes.

She transferred to the College of Missouri the place she tried to review German and Philosophy however that ended identical to the primary. Heidi transferred but once more to a different faculty, this time to the College of Washington in 1988. This was as a result of she was not happy with learning German and as an alternative wished to get into the CIA. She opted to review Russian on the College of Washington however dropped out a semester earlier than her commencement.

Heidi Van Pelt Tried Her Arms at Many Issues and Failed Earlier than She Grew to become a Vegan Chef

Heidi Van Pelt didn’t have a specific profession trajectory and this was apparent to everybody who knew her. Instantly after quitting the CIA program, she based a media firm that she known as Emergent Movies. She left this firm and moved away from Washington to Los Angeles to begin over. Whereas in Los Angeles, she tried to make ends meet by doing numerous odd jobs, together with working as a film manufacturing assistant and prop grasp.

Finally, she determined to look into vegetarianism and determined to learn to put together vegetarian meals. This led her to return to highschool as soon as extra, and she or he took on-line lessons on the American Academy of Vitamin and bought licensed as a Dietary Counselor. After that, Heidi secured a job as a Nutritionist at a clinic in Los Angeles. She additionally took up volunteering with an animal proper activists group because of her vegan inclinations.

After making an attempt and failing in a number of companies and profession ventures, Heidi Van Pelt lastly noticed an sudden opening as a vegan chef. She bought fortunate and landed a job because the co-anchor of the Midwestern radio program known as ‘Uncooked Well being’. This program blew up as a result of vegan cooking was starting to get fashionable amongst Individuals. Consequently, she turned fashionable among the many Los Angeles vegan crowd and gained entry to the créme de la créme of the Southern Californian metropolis.

The Chef Met Her Future Husband By way of a Pal

Throughout her time on Uncooked Well being, Heidi Van Pelt met an animal rights activist who launched her to many well-known celebrities who have been animal lovers as properly. It was in the middle of one such meet-up that she met Taran Noah Smith and his pal, Zachary Ty Bryan. This occurred across the yr 1999 and Heidi occurred to be in a relationship on the time. They, nevertheless, remained buddies.

Earlier than we get into all that, let’s speak a bit about Taran Noah Smith. Taran is an American former actor finest recognized for his portrayal of the character, Mark Taylor, on the sitcom, Dwelling Enchancment. Smith began his performing profession when he was simply seven years outdated. Born in San Francisco, California to oldsters Sweet Bennici (mom) and David Smith (father), he grew up alongside his older sister, Ariandrea Hilary Smith who’s now a well-known mannequin.

To not be outdone by anybody, Taran started taking performing lessons and finally landed the function on the favored sitcom in 1991, which was his solely main tv function. For his half on the present, Taran received an Academy Award for Distinctive Efficiency by a Younger Actor Underneath Ten in 1992 after which the Younger Artist Award for Excellent Youth Ensemble in a Tv Collection in 1994.

When Taran and Heidi met, he was nonetheless on the present and was nonetheless within the public eye. They met once more in 2000 and each took a liking to one another instantly after they talked about their private issues. It appeared that there was a powerful connection between the 2 of them and earlier than lengthy it had progressed to a full-blown relationship. Heidi quickly moved in with Taran and his household and stayed with them for 2 months.

All of the whereas, Taran had lied to them about her age. Taran’s dad and mom finally came upon about Heidi’s actual age after she was issued a rushing ticket and so they promptly kicked her out. This induced fairly a ruckus within the household as Taran left together with her. They left Los Angeles and moved to Lawrence the place they hurriedly bought married secretly. The shotgun wedding ceremony occurred in a strip membership in Topeka on April 27, 2001.

At the moment, Heidi was 33 years outdated whereas Taran was but to be thought of an grownup legally. Consequently, the information of their marriage induced a horrible outrage within the media with reporters opting to pay as a lot as $25,000 for the marriage footage. After the curiosity of their union started to die down a bit, they each moved again to Los Angeles and arrange their cooking enterprise collectively.

By this time, the Dwelling Enchancment present had ended and Taran had already made up his thoughts to stop performing. They primarily cooked vegan meals collectively, recycled native objects, and even contributed to native charities, and upcoming artists. They ran an natural restaurant enterprise for some time known as Playfood earlier than they break up up. Their marriage was blessed with an solely son whom they named Nolan Eric Smith.

What’s the Age Distinction Between Heidi Van Pelt and Taran Noah Smith?

A recurring subject that a lot of the public appeared to have with Taran and Heidi’s marriage was the huge age distinction between the each of them. Heidi is precisely 16 years older than Taran Noah. On the time of their marriage, it was much more scandalous contemplating that Noah was simply 17 years outdated, and nonetheless a minor. It appeared like a catastrophe ready to occur, particularly for Taran who appeared to have extra to lose.

The controversial couple acquired plenty of pushback from the actor’s dad and mom, who for one weren’t in assist of the connection, not to mention the wedding. Quickly, Taran’s household lawyer was making an attempt to get the wedding annulled, however it was futile. Speculations have been that Heidi Van Pelt was a golddigger who was after Taran’s $1.5 million belief fund.

Surprisingly, neither Taran nor Heidi was deterred by the vicious gossip swirling round their relationship and so they appeared fairly comfortable and content material with one another till the wedding met its demise a couple of years down the road.

Why Did Heidi Van Pelt and Taran Noah Smith Get Divorced?

As a lot as these two tried to courageous the chances towards their union, all of it got here to an finish quickly – slightly inevitably as some would say. The damaging controversy about their marriage left lots of people predicting that the union was doomed proper from the beginning. Sadly, they have been proper. Taran and Heidi bought divorced in February 2007, after solely 6 years of marriage, and almost eight years of figuring out one another.

It was stated that cash and dishonest allegations have been the trigger and each events blamed one another for the break up. On one hand, Heidi complained that Taran drank and partied an excessive amount of, and cheated on her severally and the truth that he was as soon as convicted for driving underneath the affect gave credence to her accusations. Taran, however, revealed that Heidi was stealing their restaurant enterprise income and placing them into her personal companies.

He additionally accused her of sleeping with ladies and getting indignant when he determined to do some stepping out of his personal. In line with him, throughout one such altercation, Heidi threw a tantrum and broke all of the dishes in the home.

With time, they stopped sleeping in the identical mattress after which took to working in separate cities simply to keep away from one another. Once they finally filed for divorce, they battled over youngster custody and possession of the enterprise. Heidi was awarded each and walked off a lot richer than she walked in.

The place Is Heidi Van Pelt Now?

In line with a report by a Kansas Metropolis information outlet referred to as The Pitch, after Heidi’s marriage to Taran went south in 2005, she moved again to Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, the place she was raised. Just a few years later, she bought married to a lanky man named Jerimiah Rozzo-Belle, with whom she had a baby named Vox.

Collectively, Heidi and her second husband opened a vegan restaurant referred to as Fud, positioned inside Unhealthy Seed, the Crossroads farmers market in Kansas Metropolis. The restaurant started operations as a stand-alone eatery on the Westside in 2010. Sadly, seven years later, it was reported that the eatery had been closed. With out the consent of her companion, Rozzo, who owns 49% of Füd, Heidi determined to cease the operation of their business as a result of she believed that their staff have been scheming towards her.

Chatting with David Hudnall of The Pitch in 2017, Rozzo revealed that he and Heidi have been making an attempt to kind out the authorized particulars of methods to break off their partnership within the restaurant. In line with him, it was “a really traumatic finish to a protracted, dysfunctional enterprise relationship.”

Though the restaurant was closed, Heidi stated it was solely non permanent because the enterprise would reopen quickly. However up until now, there has not been any information of that occuring neither has there been any information about Heidi. Sadly, she by no means opened any recognized social media accounts the place we will sustain together with her, aside from Fb, the place she will not be even energetic. Her few posts on the social platform speak about elevating consciousness for feminine victims of kid abuse and advocacy for psychological well being points.

However, Taran Smith is the Technical Supervisor for a group mission known as the Submersibles Undertaking and there, he teaches individuals methods to pilot submarines. A few years in the past (in 2014), he volunteered with the group within the Philippines, providing to assist out with catastrophe reduction supplies.