Actress Barbara Eden, best known for playing the title character on the classic sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, has revealed she initially refused to wear her original Jeannie costume at Vienna's 2013 Life Ball, only relenting after a friend secretly packed it in her suitcase.
"I didn't want to do it. I'll tell you that," Eden, now 95, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Aug. 23. "I said, 'Look, I'm not going to put the Jeannie costume on. There's no way this older woman is going to put it on. So do something [...] if you can cover up my arms.'"
Eden played the titular genie on I Dream of Jeannie throughout its original run from 1965 to 1970. The Life Ball, held annually in Vienna, is one of Europe's largest charity galas, raising funds and awareness for people living with HIV and AIDS.
At the time of the 2013 event, Eden was 81 years old and had asked organizers to design an alternative costume that covered her arms. She said it was "an accident" that her original Jeannie costume ended up in Austria at all, crediting a friend who helped her pack.
"She said, 'Just take it, just in case,'" Eden recalled. "I said, 'There'll be no just in case. I'll be naked before I put that on.' Guess what? She put it in my suitcase."
The Replacement Costume Didn't Fit
Eden said the modest alternative that event organizers had made for her turned out to be unwearable. "I put it on. First of all, it was huge. It was like big balloon pants with stripes, big thick stripes," she explained. "I'm a kind of a small woman. You put this big pair of pants on, and they're falling down."
With the replacement failing her, Eden turned to the original costume her friend had packed. "I took it into the bathroom in the hotel, and I put it on," she recalled. "I said, 'Do you think I can pass in this?' 'Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.' You know, they were just glad to get off the hot seat. But that's why I had it on."
Eden went on to appear onstage alongside musician Elton John and former U.S. President Bill Clinton in her original I Dream of Jeannie costume, fifty years after it was first made for her.
"I don't care. They knew how old I was," she said of how she felt afterward. "Once it was done, I realized it's silly. It's for a good cause. They know who I am. They know what I am, and they certainly will see it in this costume."
Staying True to Herself
In the years since the Life Ball appearance, Eden has occasionally shared glimpses of her life with husband Jon Eicholtz through photos and rare interviews.
Speaking on a June 2025 episode of Jennie Garth's I Choose Me podcast, Eden said she has never let outside criticism change how she presents herself. "You don't pay any attention to anything anyone says," she said. "Because you will get so much criticism, negativity or too much, you know, a puff thing. So, just be true to yourself."
