The Real-Life Partners Of The Today Show Anchors
The anchors of NBC's long-running fan favorite series, the "Today Show" are hard-working and career-driven, but their romantic partners also have interesting careers of their own. A few of the anchors' partners work in broadcast journalism as well, while others have completely different types of jobs. Some of the anchors have been married for years, with one even marrying their high school sweetheart, while others were in long-term relationships with each other before deciding to tie the knot. On the flip side, some of them found their significant others later in life, while one popular anchor says they are enjoying the single life after a called-off engagement. On top of that, some of these anchors have early weekday morning schedules that conflict with their partners' schedule, but still find ways to stay connected.
Here's the details about who these anchors' real-life partners are, how each couple met, and other need-to-know information about the important people in the lives of your favorite "Today Show" hosts.
Savannah Guthrie found love again in husband Michael Feldman
Aside from serving as NBC's chief legal correspondent, Savannah Guthrie has been the leading co-anchor for the "Today Show" since 2012. Fans of Guthrie have watched her journalism career grow, and have also cheered her on in her personal life. Currently, she is married to Michael Feldman, a communications consultant. The two met in 2008 at Feldman's 40th birthday bash, though Guthrie herself had just separated from her first husband. After her divorce in 2009, Guthrie began dating Feldman. They got married in 2014 and have been together since.
The couple also had children later in life, and are now the parents of a daughter and a son. "I always wanted to be a mom, and it took us so long to get married — we dated for so long — that we thought maybe it was too late and we'd lost our chance," Guthrie told People in 2019. As for having children in her 40s, Guthrie also explained the perks to the publication. "I think there's a luxury to feel calm enough and not to feel the same pressures as in your 20s and 30s, when you are really trying to make your career happen. Now, I can really take my time and enjoy our kids."
Fellow broadcast journalist Deborah Roberts is Al Roker's wife
Al Roker has been a staple on the "Today Show" since he first joined the show in 1996. Not only does he provide the weather updates, he is also a features anchor and a co-host of the show's third hour. The "Today Show" has arguably been the center of Roker's long broadcast career, but being the show also played a key part in his personal life, as it was here that he met his future wife, Deborah Roberts. As People reports, the pair met at work in 1990. At the time, Roker was married to Alice Bell, whom he divorced in 1992. Shortly after the divorce, Roker and Roberts had their first date, and the couple went on to get married in 1995. Roker had a daughter from his first marriage, and he then had another daughter with Roberts in 1998. While Roker is still working with NBC, Roberts herself went on to work for ABC News.
After all of these years, Roker is apparently still a romantic. "He does things like he sprinkles little love notes, little cards throughout my life," Roberts explained in a 2021 interview with People. "It just touches me. And he thinks that way all the time. He's a real romantic."
Jenna Bush married Henry Hager in 2008
Jenna Bush Hager and her husband Henry Hager met in 2004 when he worked for her father, then-President George W. Bush. In an excerpt of an interview published on Today, Jenna recalled their first date, explaining, "My worst first date involved the Secret Service, let's just leave it at that. It was with Henry and his car ran out of gas and went backwards and hit the Secret Service." But despite this rocky start, Jenna and Henry's relationship took off. They were married in 2008 and went on to have three children together. Jenna has worked for the "Today Show" since 2009 and currently hosts the fourth hour of "Today" with co-host Hoda Kotb.
One fun fact is that Jenna also has an affinity for writing love letters to her husband, a trait that she reportedly picked up from her late grandparents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush. In 2019, Today published a portion of a letter she wrote for Henry for Valentine's Day, where she said, "Your love is like the Post-it note with stick figure drawings of ships passing you left for me on the bathroom mirror when I returned home late. ... Your love is like that note. It is simple and solid and thoughtful." In today's culture where it seems like we barely have time for a text message, Jenna's habit can be an inspiration to slow down and create simple, yet meaningful messages for the ones we love.
Craig Melvin is married to fellow journalist Lindsay Czarniak
Craig Melvin has been an anchor for various NBC shows since 2011 and currently serves as a co-host for the third hour of the "Today Show," as well as an MSNBC anchor. He is an award-winning broadcast journalist who happens to be married to an award-winning sports broadcaster. In 2011, the same year Melvin started working for NBC, he married fellow broadcast journalist Lindsay Czarniak, who works for ESPN.
Melvin and Czarniak keep busy with their respective broadcast journalism careers, as well as their two children. In 2021, Melvin also wrote a book called "Pops: Learning to Be a Son and a Father," in which he explored his role as a parent as well as repairing his relationship with his own father. "I had to forgive my father for me, because what had started to happen is I was angry," Melvin said on Kindred by Parents. "I was annoyed all the time with him and with my mother for putting up with him ... That was part of my motivation. Years ago, my therapist said, 'When you have kids, one of the chief goals is just to not screw them up. You don't want to put all the baggage that you have on your kids.'"
Sheinelle Jones married Uche Ojeh in college
Sheinelle Jones graduated from Northwestern University where she obtained a bachelor's degrees in broadcast journalism and Spanish. She also met her future husband, Uche Ojeh, at Northwestern. The couple were married in 2007, but not before their relationship went through a true test. As Today reports, Jones and Ojeh had a long-distance relationship for nearly a decade before getting married. Since then, they've had three children together, two of which are twins.
Jones first joined NBC in 2014 and is currently the "Today Show" co-anchor for the show's third hour. She also contributes to other NBC shows, has her own wellness program for Peacock TV, and has hosted an ongoing series for the "Today Show" called "Through Mom's Eyes." Despite a busy career, it's obvious that her family takes center stage. "My kids are happy and it's what's most important to me," Jones said in a holiday special as reported by Today. "There may be a pile of laundry in the corner, but I'm so happy that I wasn't so worried about the laundry that I didn't miss the moment in front of me."
Dylan Dreyer married camera operator Brian Fichera in 2012
Dylan Dreyer, who is a co-anchor of the third hour on the "Today Show," is also the show's weather correspondent, and has been with the network since 2012. As it turns out, 2012 was also a big year for Dreyer personally, as she also got married that year. Her husband, Brian Fichera, works in broadcast journalism for NBC, too. While Dreyer's work requires her to be in front of the camera, Fichera is behind the camera for the network.
Dreyer and Fichera also have three young boys, which hasn't been easy on their marriage and careers. Dreyer recently talked about how their mutual love of golf is one of the things that has kept their marriage strong. "Golf is the thing we do together," she told Today in 2023. "We have a couple of drinks, we laugh. We remember why we fell in love. Then we go home and it's right back to family." She also credits Fichera with instilling strong communication skills in their marriage, which also includes frequent texting if their schedules clash.
Kristen Welker found her true love later in life with John Hughes
Kristen Welker's political reporting has been a staple across NBC shows including the "Today Show." Her successful career at one point made her question whether she would be as successful in finding a life partner too. According to The New York Times, during her 30s, Welker seemed to be surrounded by friends who were all settled down and having children, while she still hadn't found her own special person, and would sometimes question, "What's wrong with me?"
Yet Welker would discover there was nothing "wrong" with her, and that her true love would find her later than she expected. In 2014, she met marketing director John Hughes through mutual friends, and the two seemed to hit it off right away. The couple married in 2017. Welker told The New York Times of Hughes, "He allowed me to be me. And he's incredibly calm, while I'm typically talking 100 miles a minute." After struggling with having children, Kristen Welker had a daughter, Margot, via a surrogate in 2019. Welker has been public with her fertility struggles and has since become an advocate for awareness about this issue. "It was important to share my journey, and my journey with John, to have Margot because I wanted people to know that they're not alone, that there's a community of people, and that there's a community to support you through," Welker told People.
Peter Alexander married fellow television anchor Alison Starling
Peter Alexander, who has been a co-anchor for "Saturday Today" since 2018, has numerous other roles at NBC. Not only does he serve as the chief White House Correspondent for the network, but he also contributes to "Meet the Press," "Dateline," and "NBC Nightly News," just to name a few. Interestingly, Alexander is married to an anchor of a rival network. His wife is Alison Starling, who anchors the afternoon and evening newscasts at ABC-7 in the D.C. metro area. She has also won an Emmy for her work.
Alexander and Starling first met in Seattle, Washington, when they were both reporters. According to the Washingtonian, the couple dated again in 2010 and later got married in 2012 after Alexander proposed in Paris. Today, they both live in northern Virginia with their two daughters, Ava and Emma. "I think we both feel really grateful to have jobs that we've always wanted," Starling told Northern Virginia magazine in 2019. "We both always wanted to be in journalism and both always wanted a family. We feel lucky to have all those things at once. The hardest part is finding family time where we're all together and not rushing."
Willie Geist married his high school sweetheart, Christina
Willie Geist, who holds numerous roles at the NBC family of shows, has served as the host of "Sunday Today" since 2016. He is also a regular contributor to the "Today Show," a co-host of "Morning Joe," and frequently works on "Meet the Press" and "NBC Nightly News." It appears that Willie's time at NBC isn't slowing down any time soon, as he's settled into a long-term career with the company. On top of this, Willie has also been in a long-term relationship with his wife, Christina Geist, since he was a teenager.
In fact, Willie and Christina first met in the sixth grade, and they were friends for several years. They became an official couple in high school. "We went to high school together, we went to college together, but we were buddies first," Willie explained on "Today with Hoda & Jenna" in 2022, as reported by Today. "And I think even today, all these years later, that's the foundation of our relationship is that we were always friends." Willie and Christina have been married since 2003 and have two children together. While Willie has a successful journalism career, Christina is a successful entrepreneur, brand strategist, and author.
Carson Daly married Siri Pinter after several years of dating
Carson Daly became a member of the "Today Show" in 2013 where he serves as a feature anchor and also runs the Orange Room. Amid his growing career at NBC, Daly was also in the middle of a long-term relationship. He started dating Siri Pinter in 2005 after they first met on Daly's former show "Last Call with Carson Daly," where Pinter was a writer's assistant. Explaining that they wanted to wait until the right time to get married, Daly told People, "The husband and wife thing is just the bow around something. Our end game is we want to be together forever."
Indeed, Daly and Pinter made their "husband and wife thing" official when they tied the knot in December 2015. Before getting married they had been together for 10 years and had three children. Now, they have a fourth child, who was born in 2020. During this time, Pinter and Daly told People that they went through a "sleep divorce," meaning that they sleep separately. "We're both pretty good-sized humans and it just wasn't really working when she was in her third trimester, and I also have sleep apnea, which is very sexy for the ladies out there, I'm sure," he explained.
Since 2022, Hoda Kotb has been enjoying life single
Hoda Kotb is currently the co-anchor of the "Today Show" with Savannah Guthrie, along with the co-host of "Today With Hoda & Jenna" alongside Jenna Bush Hager. She has worked for NBC in various reporting and anchor roles since 1998. She even has her own show on radio show on SiriusXM. Kotb was previously married to Burzis Kanga, but the couple divorced in 2008.
In 2015, Kotb announced her relationship with Joel Schiffman, and the couple later got engaged in 2019. Schiffman and Kotb also share two adoptive daughters together, Haley and Hope Kotb, born in 2017 and 2019. In early 2022, however, Kotb and Schiffman announced that they ended their engagement. "Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we're better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple, so we decided we are going to start this new year ... on our new path as loving parents to our adorable, delightful children, and as friends," said Kotb on "Today" as quoted by People. Since then, Kotb appears to be enjoying life with her young daughters as well as her continued friendship with Schiffman.