A producer counting down in Craig Melvin's ear as he returned from a commercial break at the Washington DC affiliate in 2008 couldn't help but count down the seconds until Craig met his future wife.
The TODAY co-anchor revealed on Nov. 3's “Jenna & Friends” how he met his wife of 14 years, Lindsay Czarniak, when they appeared together live on WRC-TV in the nation's capital.
“There wasn’t a hard launch back then,” Craig said. “It's 2008 and I did it the old fashioned way – stalked her at work.”
“Then you could do it. You could meet at work. You could meet at work. I knew who she was before I even got there.”
Lindsey was in Beijing covering the Olympics for the network when Craig was first hired by NBC's Washington affiliate. One day, Craig was talking on air between commercials with his back turned when his future wife surprised him. She returned from China to resume her normal schedule.
“And I turned around, and the guy who was replacing her wasn’t there. I didn’t know that and I turned around and was like, ‘Oh, hey, hmm,’ and that’s why I’m a little tongue-tied,” Craig recalled. “I was like, ‘Hey, welcome back from the Olympics,’ and she was like, ‘Welcome to Channel 4, loser. She didn’t say ‘loser,’” he joked.
This chance moment played a role in their wedding in 2011.
“So she took a video of our rehearsal dinner,” Craig said. “So we met live. I think technically we did it. We met on NBC.”
Craig and Lindsey too spoke with Sheinelle Jones TODAY in 2021 about their first meeting.
“I just got back from Beijing and he got hired,” Lindsay said. “I didn’t know him, but I snuck in and we met during a commercial break. And I said, 'Who is this guy?'”
Three years later Craig proposed to Lindsay by boat in Miami.
The couple celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary in October and are parents two children: Delano, 11 years old, and Sybil, 8 years old.
