Dylan Sprouse Defended His Suite Life Mom Kim Rhodes Over “Fat Jokes”

Dylan and Cole Sprouse always had their Suite Life mom’s back — even if their characters were a complete nuisance to her. On a recent episode of the Back to the Best podcast, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody star Kim Rhodes revealed that her onscreen son Dylan Sprouse defended her from “fat jokes” that were written in the script.

During one of the three seasons of the Disney Channel series, Rhodes became pregnant in real life. “Of course, the show dealt with it by making fat jokes,” she said. However, she pointed out how the twins “defended [her] all the way through” the show, especially during her pregnancy.

How Dylan Defended His “Mom”

Rhodes recalled an instance where Dylan refused to say a fat joke in rehearsals. “One of my favorite memories is Dylan had a line that was a fat joke, and he just kept skipping over it,” she recalled. “It was in the middle of a chunk of dialogue, so he kept skipping this laugh line and skipping it and skipping it.”

When they taped the episode in front of a studio audience, he didn’t say the line once again. “The executive producer screams, ‘Cut! Dylan say the line,’” she recalled, noting how that is usually the director’s job to cut cameras.

“And he goes, ‘I would not disrespect any woman that way, let alone this woman. You write something funny and I'll say it.’”

Rhodes only had one reaction to his admirable gesture. “That’s my little man,” she quipped, nodding to what she called her onscreen sons on the series. “They're both my little men.”

Still Proud Of The Sprouse Twins

While Rhodes bonded with the Sprouse twins on set, she told fans on an Instagram Live in 2021 that she’s not in touch with them frequently, likening it to how you probably wouldn’t talk to your favorite school teacher on a daily basis.

“If I saw them, I would not have a second of hesitation to smush them and pick them up and burst into tears because I’m so proud of both of them,” she said. “But no, we are not in daily contact. However, I deeply love them and they will always, always, always be in my heart.”

That said, Rhodes always finds a way to acknowledge the twins on momentous occasions — like when Zack and Cody’s dinner reservations in Italy, made 15 years in advance, finally arrived on Nov. 16, 2023. “Congratulations, boys,” she wrote on Instagram. “You’re still making me proud. Enjoy your dinner.”