Adam Sandler mistook Nikki Glaser for Judd Apatow’s daughter while babysitting

Nikki Glaser is recalling a hilarious mix-up she had with Adam Sandler.

The comedian, who guested on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show to discuss hosting the Golden Globes for the second year in a row, discussed her time babysitting Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann‘s children, Maude and Iris Apatow — including her unexpected conversation with the Billy Madison actor.

“I remember one night, Adam Sandler called, and he was like, ‘Hellooo?'” she said, imitating the Happy Gilmore actor’s exaggeratedly goofy voice. “He thought I was Maude, ’cause their younger daughter had a kind of a huskier voice. ‘Hello, Maude, this is Adam.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, hi!’ And he was like, ‘Oh, sorry, you’re the babysitter! Adam Sandler. How’s your night going?'”

Glaser said she was surprised that the Uncut Gems actor, who worked with Judd Apatow on 2009’s Funny People, took a genuine interest in her on the phone call. “He asked me how my night was going,” she said. “It was my first interaction with Adam Sandler, and I have loved him ever since. That was the nicest call I’ve ever gotten from someone when I was babysitting, from like a family member or a friend calling.”

The comedian said she was charmed by Sandler’s playful rapport with the Apatow kids. “It was so cute how he was so silly on the phone, and asked me how my night was,” she said. “And then I loved him ever since.”

Glaser reconnected with Sandler while hosting the 2026 Golden Globes. “He was at the Globes the other night, and I had to do something in the middle of the audience, and he’s sitting right in front of me, like turned around, watching, beaming at me, smiling, just rooting me on,” she said. “And I flubbed every line in that because I was so nervous performing for Adam Sandler, who was sitting front row. I love him so much. He was so supportive.”

Apatow also crossed paths with Glaser at the awards ceremony as he presented the Golden Globe for Best Director — and before he revealed the winner of the category, he discussed the host’s time babysitting for his family.

“She was our babysitter, and she was like, ‘I do stand-up comedy,'” Apatow remembered. “And then I went online and watched her set, and it was all about smoking reefer and having weird sex. And then she stopped being our babysitter.” 

“I really appreciated that he shared that,” Glaser told Howard Stern. “I was really tickled by that because it’s such a special moment for me that I started out as his babysitter.”

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Glaser said that she and Apatow are now working on a movie project together, and noted that her history with his family has never prevented the Knocked Up director from recognizing her talents. 

“When I took that job, I remember thinking, ‘This person is probably never going to see you as anything other than a nanny or whatever you came in as,'” she said. “Even good people, they can’t really get past that. Whatever they meet you as is kind of what you are [to them] forever. And it’s never been that with him. He doesn’t talk about that. We don’t talk about it. It’s not like a thing we don’t talk about, but I don’t feel like he looks at me that way.”