Today coanchor Craig Melvin and Lindsay Czarniak turned their office romance into the real deal.
“We met on set at our TV station, WRC in Washington D.C., and I had just gotten back from Beijing and he was hired,” Czarniak explained during an episode of Today in November 2021. “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.”
One month after meeting in 2008, Czarniak hosted a charity gala and Melvin attended with some others from NBC, per The Washington Post. He gave her a ride home after, and the pair kissed in the kitchen of her apartment.
They continued to see each other casually for six months until Melvin told her he wanted to take the next step — but Czarniak was hesitant about pursuing a relationship with a colleague. Ultimately, they went on a date and tied the knot in 2011. Melvin and Czarniak welcomed son Delano in 2014 and daughter Sybil in 2016.
Scroll down to see their love story from the beginning:
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2008
Melvin and Czarniak met on set while working at NBC4 in Washington D.C. After Czarniak hosted a charity gala, they shared a kiss in her apartment. The next morning she recalled wondering, “Oh, my God. What . . . did I just do?” Melvin and Czarniak continued to pursue a romance for the next six months, but did not define their relationship.
“I think for a long time the work factor was more of an issue for me than it should have been because A., I didn’t realize what the possibility [of the relationship] was, and B., I had not been in that position before,” Czarniak told The Washington Post in 2011. “I didn’t want to screw anything up.”
April 2009
Melvin called Czarniak in April 2009 and told her he wanted to pursue a relationship with her. “I made up my mind,” he recalled to The Washington Post in 2011. “And I said: ‘Listen, I want this to work. I don’t see why it shouldn’t work.’”
Czarniak added, “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.’ ”
July 2009
After keeping their distance, Melvin asked Czarniak to meet her for a drink and she agreed. “That night when we met, 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’d hung out with,’ ” she told The Washington Post in 2011. “It felt like being with the person that really gets you and that you’ve known for a really, really long time.”
October 2009
Melvin asked Czarniak on a date and they began pursuing a romance — but kept it under wraps around their colleagues.
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March 2011
Melvin popped the question to Czarniak while the pair were on a sailboat in Miami.
October 2011
Melvin and Czarniak tied the knot in Washington D.C.
March 2014
Melvin and Czarniak welcomed their first child together, son Delano. Melvin shared a sweet selfie of him and his son via X, writing, “My son already looks at me like, ‘Really, dad. Really?’ Delano Joseph Melvin arrived this am at 6:36. Call him Del.”
November 2016
Melvin and Czarniak welcomed daughter Sybil. The couple explained in an interview with People at the time that they came up with the nickname “Sibby,” short for sibling, for Delano to call his sister while she was pregnant. But they wound up “falling in love with the name.”
November 2024
After news broke that Melvin was named the new coanchor of the first hour of Today, Czarniak gushed over her husband. “HUGE news. Just HUGE,” Czarniak wrote via her Instagram Story. “I’m so incredibly proud of you.”
Czarniak wrote that her heart was “bursting” about Melvin’s Today promotion in a lengthy Instagram post. “The opportunity to watch the person you love see their dream come true is such a gift,” she wrote. “I will never forget this day and the crowds’ excitement to share your good news.”
Sharing more kind words about Melvin, Czarniak continued, “I’m proud because the man so many Americans ‘wake up with’ in the mornings truly is the same person we see at home. Warm, caring, curious, smart, funny, snacking on all the food being prepared.”
January 2025
Melvin teared up on-air when he was surprised by Czarniak, their kids, his parents, Lawrence and Betty Jo, and his brother Ryan on Today for his first day as the show’s new coanchor. “When I left this morning, you guys were all in bed,” he joked, to which Czarniak replied, “We faked it.”
Czarniak went on to state that Melvin’s new Today role “symbolizes belief,” adding, “You dare to dream a dream, and then, to see it actually come true, it makes me think about a spouse making it to the Super Bowl or, like, the game-winning catch. That’s what this feels like. And what makes me so proud is just the person that Melvin is and understanding that it’s the kindness and it’s how genuine he is. And so, we’re just excited and pumped.”
March 2025
Al Roker joked that he was the “third wheel” when Czarniak joined him and Melvin on the third hour of Today. “It’s so great to be here,” she said while filling in for Dylan Dreyer, adding that Melvin was “very nervous about me taking things off the rails.”
She used her guest host gig to poke fun at the chilled face rollers Melvin and Roker use in the makeup room in the morning. “I’m still feeling it,” she said of using the tool.
For the episode, Czarniak dressed in head-to-toe blue in honor of National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Melvin lost his older brother, Lawrence, to colon cancer in 2020.
