The Peloton Wife History

It’s been a year since the infamous “Peloton Wife” commercial went viral. This week on The Clip Out, we sit down with the star of that ad campaign, Monica Ruiz, for an exclusive interview. Her first in almost a year! She talks about landing the job, how the commercial impacted her life, partnering with Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation Gin, and finally getting a Peloton in real life and loving it.

If you have been following Peloton for longer than a year, chances are you remember “The Commercial“.  Yes, the one that went viral and caused a surprising amount of backlash.  The one where a husband bought his wife a Peloton for Christmas.  In December of 2019, the commercial was everywhere.  And everyone had an opinion about it. There was much speculation – Did the husband ASK the wife if she wanted a Peloton?  Was it the husband commenting on who (and how) he wanted his wife to be?

The interesting part is, for many people, “Monica Ruiz” and “The Peloton Wife” became one-and-the-same and not just an actress playing a part.  Even though the whole world wanted to hear from the “Peloton Wife,” Monica only granted one interview on the topic with The Today Show.  Otherwise, she has remained silent…until now!  One year later, The Clip Out was able to sit down with Monica for an exclusive interview to finally hear her take on the entire experience.

What was Monica’s reaction to the commercial going viral?

Monica says that she purposely stayed out of it: I was bringing my son to school. I used to know this guy because I used to bartend and there was a guy who bartended at a different place. He messaged me on Facebook. I deleted my Facebook since then, but I had it at the time and he goes, “Good morning, America,” or somebody tweeted, “Who is the Peloton woman?” I tweeted back at “Good morning, America.” He was like, “I know her. She’s Monica Ruiz.” I’m like, “No, why did you tell them?” I was hoping it would go away. I was like, “Everyone’s going to get over this. They’re going to laugh about it for a day or two, and then we’ll be moving on to something else.” I was sitting tight and waiting for everyone to move past it, but that didn’t happen as quickly as I thought. My phone kept ringing and my agent was like, “All of these people want to have an interview.” I’m like, “To talk about what?” I was like, “If I don’t read the comments and I don’t read the things that are said, then I’m protecting myself. When I opened my phone, it was like an explosion. When I didn’t look at my phone, everything was normal and calm. Life was completely normal. It was a strange time.

Did the attention bother Monica?

It did. It bothered me because I wasn’t a part of the conversation. I didn’t want to be because I respected the fact that some people were triggered by the whole thing. If you saw it one way and you were triggered by it, I didn’t want to be dismissive of that. I was just the actor in the commercial. I didn’t write it. Another thing is that there were a lot of things that were left out of that commercial because they have to cut it down to 30 seconds. If they would’ve put in a couple of lines or scenes that would have clarified things a little bit better, maybe this never even would have happened, but who knows? I felt all the attention I’m getting is because people want to know what side I’m on. I was like, “I just want to work.” I don’t want to be only remembered for this. A lot of people probably would have liked the opportunity to get the spotlight, but I wasn’t ready for it. I’ve been doing commercials for so long and that was completely unexpected. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know at all how to handle it.

How did the Aviation Gin Commerical via Ryan Reynolds come to be?

They contacted my agent. At first, my agent was like, “I don’t know what’s going on. This is weird.” She even was thinking, “Let this go away too.” It’s not like I had a publicist or someone who knew how to handle all of these sorts of inquiries. She was just my commercial agent. She was like, “Don’t talk to anybody yet. Let’s see what happens. Let’s figure this out.” When they contacted her about the gin idea, she called me and she said, “Aviation Gin.” I thought she said, “Aviation gym,” like a local gym in Redondo Beach. I was like, “Aviation, is that going to be a local commercial?” She was like, “You’ve never heard of them? They have funny commercials.” I was like, “No.” She must have thought I was crazy. Of course, I had heard of them. I heard her wrong when she said it. When she came back to me with the idea, I was like, “Gin, I get it.” They gave me the idea and then I got worried because I thought, “I don’t want to do anything that’s going to be perceived as making fun of Peloton or the commercial.” Everyone was nice. I don’t want them to think I’m making fun of them. I went back and forth.

What’s the one thing everyone asked her about Ryan Reynolds?

When I came back home, everyone was like, “What did he smell like?” You would be shocked by how many men and women asked me what he smelled like. I was like, “What?”

When and how did Monica get her bike in real life?

I got it in February. I had to make space in this terrible, tiny garage that we had. We moved, but we have this little garage that I was like, “I need to make space for this beautiful, expensive bike. What am I going to do?” The guys that delivered it were asking my husband because he went outside for them to deliver it. They had his name on the delivery and they were like, “Are you familiar with the bike?” He was like, “No, but my wife is. She was the one in the commercial.” The guys were like, “She was?” He was like, “Do you want me to have her come out?” It was funny how surprised they were. They were delivering a bike to the Peleton woman. We took pictures and stuff.

Monica says she rides all the time and will be celebrating her 200th ride on Christine D’Ercole‘s climb ride on Sunday (12/20/20) afternoon! (if her toe is not broken).

Will she share her leaderboard name?

Yes, yes she will. And she hopes you will listen to the episode to find out what it is and follow her. Ok, those are my wishes, but really, it’s a simple request.

Has this whole experience helped Monica’s acting career?

It’s hard to say because with 2020, the way that it’s been, I think about that all the time. Certain things came to us like offers came, but they were all having to do with the commercial like, “We want to do this and it’s going to be a play on this.” I’m like, “No, I don’t want to do that.” The Bold and the Beautiful, which was a show that I watched growing up for many years. My husband makes fun of me to this day because it was always on the DVR and I would come home and watch it quickly. When you fast forward the commercials, the show is not even twenty minutes long. It is short. I’ve been watching it since I was in high school and they reached out to me. One of the producers was at a holiday party and they were like, “Let’s ask the Peloton woman if she’ll be on the show.”

They DMed me and I responded. I was excited because it was like, “The Bold and the Beautiful.” I didn’t even check with my agent. I was like, “Yes, I’ll do it.” That was more for me and my family. My mom and my sisters were thrilled. I went to do that and I thought it was supposed to be one episode, but it turned into twenty or something like that. That was fun. That was an awesome thing that I got to do. I was a doctor and I was delivering terrible news.

Monica’s also dishes on:

• Why she recorded the interview in her car
• What it has been like filming during Covid
• What it was like to do the Peloton commercial
• What she loves about Peloton
• A potential leaderboard name change
• …. AND MORE!

Listen to the full podcast here: