Decades of love! Al Roker and Deborah Roberts have been together for more than 20 years after initially meeting on the set of the Today show.
“It was funny [because] we were in the ‘friend zone,’” the Today meteorologist recalled of romancing his now-wife, an NBC correspondent, during a February 2021 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “We were friends and she was like, ‘Let’s not ruin that friendship,’ and, you know, she was covering an event for a couple of weeks and asked me to keep an eye on her apartment. So, I did and I had to snoop around.”
Roker continued: “I was in the kitchen and I opened up the fridge and there’s nothing in there. … I open up the oven expecting to see a mess [and] she still has the cardboard was still on the oven grates. I thought, ‘This woman’s never used this oven.’ So, a day before she got back from her trip, I stocked her pantry, I stocked her refrigerator and left some flowers on the table.”
After Roberts returned, she also found that Roker had left her handwritten note that read, “Welcome home.” One week later, “I got my first date with her,” he gushed to Clarkson.
The weather guru — who shares daughter Courtney, born in 1987, with ex-wife Alice Bell — began dating Roberts in 1992, two years after they first met backstage at Today. Roker eventually proposed on New Year’s Day in January 1994.
“I had already planned a year ahead to do it because I wanted to do it at the Grand Canyon,” the New York native recalled during a February 2022 appearance on the Rachael Ray Show. “So, New Year’s Eve came and went, and we’re having breakfast and she said, ‘So if one were to be expecting a ring, when would one be expecting it?’ I said, ‘Well, no later than Groundhog’s Day.’”
Roker ultimately surprised Roberts several hours later once they made it to the Arizona landmark. As the sun started to set, the Never Goin’ Back author “dropped to [his] knee and started babbling.”
“I thought he fell!” Roberts joked to the celebrity chef, noting she was ready to break up with her beau had he not proposed. “I was trying to help him up. … I started crying [after he asked me to marry him]. It was beautiful.”
The twosome wed nearly one year later in September 1995 before eventually expanding their brood. Daughter Leila and son Nicholas were born in 1998 and 2002, respectively.
“The sumptuous journey began 26 years ago today. It has been a true and delicious adventure. Ups. Downs. Better. Worse. Coasting … Joyriding. And holding on tight along the way,” the ABC journalist captioned a September 2021 Instagram tribute to her husband. “So thrilled to share this full life with you @alroker Happy anniversary dear ❤️. Here’s to so many more!”
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