“Today” anchor Craig Melvin welcomed a very special guest to the NBC morning show on Monday, August 3: his wife, sports journalist Lindsay Czarniak.
On hand to promote her new true-crime docuseries, “Game Day Murders,” Czarniak’s presence as his interview subject left Melvin just a bit flustered.
“If I could blush, I would,” he said after is co-stars’ glowing introduction for Czarniak.
‘Not Awkward At All’
Melvin plowed forward, jokingly remarking, “It’s always fun when you can interview your spouse — not awkward at all.”
Czarniak then responded, “Do you feel funny?”
He confirmed that he did indeed. “I do feel funny,” he admitted.
Czarniak then told “Today” co-host Dylan Dreyer and Savannah Sellers that her husband had a tell whenever he gets nervous.
“He starts to get fidgety when he feels uncomfortable,” she quipped, before her clearly uncomfortable hubby brought the conversation back to Czarniak’s new TV project.
They Married in 2011
Melvin met his future wife in 2008, when they worked together at WRC-TV, NBC’s affiliate station in Washington, D.C.
They tied the knot in 2011. As Melvin told The Washington Post at the time, she brought an element to his life that he’d been lacking.
“She loves life,” said Melvin of Czarniak. “She stops. She smells the roses. She picks a few, and she shows them to me — ‘Here, smell these!'”
The couple are the parents of two children, son Delano and daughter Sybil.
Hands-On Parents
Back in 2016, Melvin took paternity leave after the birth of the couple’s second child.
He wrote about the experience in a blog for People.
“Aside from it being one of the best days of my life, something else I’ll always recall about my daughter’s birth will be standing there helplessly while my wife Lindsay masterfully employed those breathing techniques and we both gazed at the ‘Today’ show on the television that Saturday,” Melvin wrote.
He conceded that being a devoted news junkie had been a tough habit to break, yet his newborn daughter proved to be a compelling reason to stop scanning headlines and devote his full attention to the newest member of the family.
“I’m competitive and don’t like getting beaten on the big story much less missing it altogether, but the bond paternity leave creates between father and child is far more important than any news story will ever be,” he wrote.
Taking some time away from “Today” also proved to be an opportunity for Melvin to reset certain aspects of his life.
“Paternity leave has also given me the chance to reflect on priorities,” Melvin continued in his blog.
“Like many of you, one of life’s greatest challenges for me has become unplugging from the noise that consumes so much of our lives,” he added. “Resisting the urge to check a timeline, news feed, clever tweet or email even while on paternity leave has been difficult, but I’ve actually been proud of my ability to stay present. Not every day or all day, but certainly better than when I’m on the clock.”
