Who Is Willie Geist’s Wife? All About Christina Geist

Sunday today and Morning Joe host Willie Geist and his wife, Christina Geist, have been together since they were teenagers.

They met in the sixth grade, and their friendship grew into love over time. “I have a very romantic secret. I was making out with her on the roof of a friend’s house with some warm bud in the scorching fall of 1991,” Willie recalled of the big turning point in their relationship during an appearance on the 2022 show. Today. “We asked ourselves, was it a thing or was it just a moment? And it turned out to be a thing.”

Fast forward a few decades later and the couple are happily married, living in New York and raising their teenage children, Lucia and George.

“This is a long game. We were partners in life from such an early age – long before we had children or had the careers we have now – and we will be partners on the other side,” said Christina Glamour. “I can look back and appreciate how far we’ve come, and I can look forward to all the chapters ahead.”

According to Vila, laughter sustains them even in difficult times. “Something funny happens and you get to enjoy it with the girl you saw across the room in sixth grade who is the person you hoped she would be 33 years later,” he added.

Here’s everything you need to know about Christina Geist, writer and woman Todayis Willie Geist.

She’s from New Jersey

Willie Geist and Christina Geist at Ridgewood High School in New Jersey.

Willie Geist Instagram

Christina Sharkey spent her youth in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and attended Vanderbilt University in Tennessee with Willie. According to her website, she grew up in a “loud, loving family.”

She is the author of children’s books

Christina and Willie Geist 2019.

Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty

Christina is a The New York Times– bestselling author for children, entrepreneur and brand strategist. Her first book, Buddy’s Bedtime Batterywas published in 2016. She has written several other books for children, including Sorry, adults, you can’t go to school! and Buddy’s new friend.

Christina, who previously worked for several large agencies and Johnson & Johnson, founded the two companies after taking a short break to raise her children. Brand strategy and design firm True Geist, which she founded with a former associate, does everything from naming work to brand identity and packaging. Christina also started an online keepsake box company called Boombox, inspired by the keepsake boxes she and her friends used to make in college.

Christina and Willie were good friends as children

Willie Geist and Christina Geist in high school.

Willie Geist Instagram

Willie and Christina attended middle school, high school and college together, but they were friends before anything became romantic. “For people who don’t know, I met my wife in sixth grade,” Willie Hodi Kotb said of their love story. “We went to high school together, we went to college together, but first we were friends. And I think even today, all these years later, that’s the foundation of our relationship is that we’ve always been friends.” (At first, Christina was in love with Willie’s best friend, who later served as best man at their wedding.)

The two immediately noticed each other, young as they were. “On the first day, Christina had a bunch of friends from elementary school, while I was the new kid from across town, standing there looking around the room,” Willie recalled. “And I know it sounds like revisionist history, but this is the truth. I really remember thinking in my little 11-year-old brain, ‘Oh, she seems cute and cool.’ And it turns out I was right.”

Christina and Willie dated in high school, even went to each other’s prom, and continued their relationship through college, though they broke up in attempts to date other people while at Vanderbilt University. They briefly split up after graduation while pursuing their post-graduation careers, but reunited in 2000.

“I was so tired of the old conversation about how much we love each other that I said yes,” Christina said The The New York Times of their relationship status again, again. This time it stuck, and the two became engaged soon after.

Willie proposed to her in their class

Willie Geist and Christina Geist at the 1997 graduation.

Willie Geist Instagram

In 2002, Willie popped the question to Christina in their high school classroom – a full-circle moment for the school sweethearts.

They got married in Puerto Rico

Willie Geist and Christina Geist on their wedding day in 2003.

Willie Geist Instagram

Willie and Christina were married on May 24, 2003 in Puerto Rico, although their destination wedding didn’t quite go as planned. As noted by their The New York Times the wedding announcement, the resort and hotel where they planned to stay and host their reception went bankrupt, so Christina, Willie and their families turned around. Willie and Christina were married in the Spanish Church and had their reception and dance at the Palmas del Mar Country Club.

They have two children

Willie Geist, Christina Geist and their children in 2016.

Bryan Bedder/Getty

Christina and Willie have two children: daughter Lucie was born in 2007, and son George joined the family in 2009.

According to Willie, the children help him prepare for important celebrity interviews. “I’m definitely pushing 50 at this point, so when someone comes along who’s younger than a celebrity, I check my gut with my kids,” he told PEOPLE. “They said I got to interview Machine Gun Kelly, which turned out to be one of the best experiences we’ve had on the show, challenging and fun. And there was Sydney Sweeney, when I mentioned it, my daughter said, ‘Oh my God. , you’re going to have Sydney Sweeney?!’ ”

They divided their parental duties into morning and evening

Willie Geist and Christina Geist in 2014.

Manny Hernandez/WireImage

Parents put the system in place when their children were young and trying to balance their demanding careers with a busy family life. “I started working Morning Joe in April 2007 and our daughter was born in June 2007,” said Willie. “So I’ve been up in the middle of the night since we had the kids. It was harder then, for obvious reasons, especially when we had our second child and I was going out at four in the morning, and Christina had a crying child in her arms and one of them was pulling her leg. But we always had an agreement: Christina is there in the morning and I’m there at night.” Christina briefly put her career on hold to raise her children, but returned to work after a few years.

In early 2023, Christina praised her husband’s dedication to his family despite his hectic early morning schedule. “Today’s word is STRENGTH. This is WG for me,” she wrote on Instagram. “Not because he is physically strong. But because he relentlessly stands up for those he loves. Even if it looks like sitting on the kitchen floor petting a sleeping puppy after you finished doing the dishes last night. He quietly focused on me, listened to my day and the challenge I was facing – even though his day started at 4am and carried his own story – and told me (for the thousandth time) what I knew in my heart … but still needed hear.”

They celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in 2023

Willie Geist and Christina Geist in 2017.

Kristin Callahan/Ace/Shutterstock

Christina and Willie have been married for two decades, and Christina marked that momentous occasion with a candid post and a sweet photo from their wedding day. “20 years ago, I did not marry a TV presenter. I married a promising young TV producer who worked nights and weekends and whose original request for time off for our wedding was denied (it was a bank holiday weekend, especially difficult for staff),” she said. “I didn’t marry a guy who you love on Today’s show. I married the boy I sat next to in English class in 6th grade, who was so smart and funny, that the spotlight just fell on him in life. I didn’t marry a guy you can recognize on the street. I married the love of my life. Not because we imagined what life would bring. But because we both knew, we just can’t imagine it happening without each other.”

Willie shared the same photo with his own touching caption. “It turns out that even the wildest imagination of what our lives would look like 20 years after this photo was taken is far from reality,” he wrote. “We are so happy.”

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Source: HIS Education