Ryan Seacrest Proudly Shares He’s the ‘Funcle’ to His Niece (Exclusive)

Ryan Seacrest is one proud funcle.

The American Idol host, 50, spoke with PEOPLE at the YES Scholars 25th Anniversary Gala on Thursday, Sept. 4, in Los Angeles, Calif. where he revealed that his 6-year-old niece Flora Marie has a special name for him.

“I have a sweatshirt that my niece made, and I’m called the Funcle,” Seacrest tells PEOPLE, which is a term referring to “fun uncle.”

“It says ‘Funcle’ on it. I wear it proudly,” he says.

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As for what “Funcle” Ryan and his niece do together when they’re hanging out? They spend their time binging Disney films.

“We watch Disney movies. I’m catching up,” Seacrest admits. “As a young guy, I didn’t see all the princess movies, so now I’m seeing all the princess movies, which is a lot of fun.”

“She loves to go get Shirley Temples. We do that, and she loves to try and get me to do gymnastics, and I’m failing,” Seacrest adds.

Seacrest’s sister, Meredith Seacrest Leach, who is six years younger than the host, is mom to daughter Flora Marie.

During an August 2022 episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan, Seacrest was joined by his then-3-year-old niece, who helped him and guest co-host Tamron Hall settle a debate about chocolate chip cookies.

In honor of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, the co-hosts taste-tested chewy and crunchy cookies to decide which was better. Flora assisted the co-hosts in the deliberations, eventually declaring chewy as the winner.

“Flora, you know what we should do? Eat all those cookies and then hang out with Mommy,” Seacrest joked. “A little sugar rush.”

Following the show, Seacrest shared a series of pictures on Instagram with Flora from the episode.

In the first shot, Seacrest smiled alongside his sister Meredith and the little one. He also included a video in the post that showed Flora getting mic’d up before the show and another of the little girl shyly walking onto the set while holding her stuffed animal.

“It’s Flora’s show, we’re just supporting characters in it,” Seacrest captioned the sweet post.