Hallmark movies are notorious for sweet reunions between people who live worlds apart, but it usually happens onscreen. 98 Degrees member Drew Lachey says he experienced that magic offscreen, when a Hallmark movie inadvertently brought Mariah Carey back into his life 16 years after recording together.
On April 3, 2026, during an appearance on Danielle Fishel’s “Teen Beat” podcast, Lachey recalled nervously reuniting with Carey at the script reading for a Hallmark movie, filmed years after their first collaboration.
Drew Lachey Was a Consultant on Mariah Carey’s Hallmark Movie, ‘A Christmas Melody’
Lachey’s Cincinnati-based boy band, 98 Degrees, recorded the song “Thank God I Found You” with Carey and R&B singer Joe in 1999. The song rocketed to the top of the charts in early 2000, becoming Carey’s 15th number one single, according to The97. The tune received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Although they didn’t record the song in the studio with Carey, Lachey and his bandmates did film a music video together for the song.
“We were on tour, she was on tour,” he recalled on Fishel’s podcast. “You know, it was like two ships passing in the night. But when we shot the video for it, she did come out to our tour stop because we were literally, like, six days a week. We had no time to travel somewhere, shoot a video. So, you know, the ‘Thank God I Found You’ video was basically on our … tour set in the middle of somewhere in the middle of America.”
But that was the last time Lachey interacted with the Queen of Pop — until 2015, when he found himself sitting across from Carey at a table read for the Hallmark movie she developed and starred in, “A Christmas Melody,” co-starring Brennan Elliott and Lacey Chabert.
“I consult on some movies that film here in Cincinnati,” he told Fishel, “and she came in here and did a Hallmark movie. She directed it and starred in it.”
Drew Lachey Was So Nervous Mariah Carey Wouldn’t Remember Him
Lachey, 49, admitted on the “Teen Beat” podcast that as he sat down for the table read with Carey, now 57, he was worried she wouldn’t remember him.
“I was one of the consultants for some of the performances, and we’re at the first table read, and she was sitting there with her sunglasses on,” he said. “And she was sitting across the table from me, and it gets to me. We’re introducing ourselves, and she literally, like, pulls her sunglasses down and looks at me, and she’s like, ‘I know you!'”
“I was like, ‘Thank God,'” the season two “Dancing With the Stars” champ recalled, relieved that Carey recognized him. “Because it would have been really embarrassing. So, at least she acknowledged that we had worked together and, you know, we had a number one together, and so that was good. Because that would have been really embarrassing.”
“A Christmas Melody” remains a holiday favorite for many Hallmark fans, replaying during the network’s annual Countdown to Christmas programming. It’s also available to stream via Hallmark+.
