Fabio Reveals What He's Looking for in a Woman: 'I Like Funny' (and Calls Sherri Shepherd 'Sexy')

The king of romance is single.

Fabio — the single-monikered Italian model-turned-romance novel star-turned-butter substitute pitchman-turned-pop culture icon — is still looking for love. "I want to get married," the 62-year-old tells Jason Sheeler and Andrea Lavinthal on the season finale of the PEOPLE in the '90s podcast. "I want to have kids."

Back in 1993, when he was on the cover of PEOPLE, Fabio spoke of the one he said got away. "I treated her badly," he says on the podcast. "She wanted to settle down, and I was just too wild." (He would not say her name, only describing her as a successful American model.)

These days, Fabio is retired for the most part — he turns down a lot of work, which has included Dancing with the Stars and Diet Coke and Viagra ads — and spends his time between Los Angeles and Washington State, where he rides dirt bikes and fishes for salmon.

But he does like to date. In fact, a few days before this interview, he'd taken a woman to dinner, picking her up in one of his 31 sports cars.

Fabio has a type: "I like funny," he says. She can't be social media obsessed. (He hates it and is not on Twitter or Instagram.) And, he adds, "She has to be able to be in the middle of nature. She can't be afraid about bugs." He has options, he insisted. "There is quantity, but I want quality."

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"Can we fix you up?" Lavinthal asked Fabio.

"I've got someone for you," Sheeler said, thinking of when actress and comedian Sherri Shepherd appeared on PEOPLE in the '90s and admitted to having — like a lot of other people — some Fabio fantasies. "I dreamed of him picking me up on the beach, his linen pants rolled up to his knees," she said.

Sheeler and Lavinthal told Fabio the story.

"You like funny," Sheeler said. "Sherri is hysterical."

"She's beautiful," Lavinthal said, showing Fabio her photo, from a recent shoot for PEOPLE.

"Very sexy woman," Fabio said.

So the question is: When is Fabio asking Shepherd out?

For more from Fabio and other '90s icons, listen to PEOPLE in the '90s on iHeartMedia, Apple podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. New episodes drop Thursday mornings.