Real-Life Love
‘Today’ Show Host Craig Melvin Reveals Secret to His & Lindsay Czarniak’s 13-Year Marriage
Craig Melvin has the ultimate support system at home as he embarks on his new journey as co-anchor of TODAY. The journalist opened up about how he and wife Lindsay Czarniak have made it work.
Melvin and Czarniak have been married since 2011 and have two children together. While the 45-year-old said he’s “not one to dole out marriage advice,” he did admit that he and Czarniak have nailed down a system that works incredibly well for them.
“We each have our areas of responsibility,” Melvin told PEOPLE in an interview published on Wednesday, January 15. “She’s the best mom. Just watching her in action is amazing — juggling their schedules, juggling her schedule, juggling my schedule, and always being totally present. I think one of the things that’s worked for us, especially since having kids, is I follow instructions really well.”
Melvin revealed that he once had a boss tell him that he’s “coachable,” which makes him an “asset” at work. “I think in marriage, I’ve been coachable,” he added. “And God bless her. She puts up with a lot. When you’re husband’s getting up for work at 0 dark 30 and he’s not always that quiet and sometimes the phone rings in the middle of the night … she has put up with a lot for a long time.”
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In 2021, Czarniak revealed that she met her husband in 2008 while they were both working at the television station WRC-TV in Washington D.C. (Melvin was employed by the network from 2008 until 2011, while Czarniak worked there from 2005 to 2011.)
“I had just gotten back from Beijing and he was hired,” the sports reporter revealed. “I didn’t know him. He didn’t make the first move on the first day, but I slid in and we met during a commercial break.”
It wasn’t until one month after the pair’s first meeting that they shared their first kiss. Melvin attended a charity gala that was hosted by his now-wife and drove her home afterward. After six months of casual dating, Melvin said he wanted to take the next step, but Czarniak was hesitant since they were still colleagues.
“He basically was like, ‘Either you’re in or you’re out.’ And I was like, ‘Then I’m out — ’cause I can’t be in,'” Czarniak told The Washington Post in 2011. However, Melvin pursued her again that summer, and by October 2009, they were a couple.
Of their reconciliation, Czarniak has admitted, “There was something that clicked. And it wasn’t necessarily that I knew, ‘I have to be with this guy.’ But it was like, ‘I don’t want to be with anyone else that I’ve hung out with.’ It felt like being with the person that really gets you and that you’ve known for a really, really long time.”
