Tabitha Brown's Mom Knew She'd Marry Husband Chance Even When They Were Broken Up in High School [Exclusive]

On April 19, the couple will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary

Jacob Webster
Jacob Webster

Tabitha Brown's mom really did know best when it came to her husband Chance Brown.

The Fridays with Tab and Chance hosts will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on April 19. In addition to a celebratory photo shoot to mark the occasion, the food star recalled her early days with the retired LAPD officer.

Tabitha and Chance first dated in middle school and broke up just before high school.

"When we broke up in high school, he didn't want to be my friend. He didn't want to talk to me or anything. So in 10th grade, we were at a basketball game when me and my mom were sitting in the bleachers and Chance walked in. He was on the side of the bleachers and he was standing in the corner with his girlfriend at the time," Tabitha, 44, begins.

"I kind of rolled my eyes because they were all hugged up. My mom looked at me and she goes, 'I don't know why you rolling your eyes.' And I was like, 'What?' She was like, 'I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. That little girl's going to get pregnant, they're going to have a baby, but that is your husband.' And I said, 'Well, you don't know me very well mama, because I would never marry someone who has children.'"

Jacob Webster
Jacob Webster

Related:Tabitha Brown on Her 'Fairytale' Vow Renewal with Husband Chance: 'I Got the Happy Ending' (Exclusive)

A few years later at their high school graduation, Tabitha's mom Patricia (who died in 2007 after an ALS diagnosis) made another prediction.

"On our graduation day, my mom says, 'Hey, go get Chance. I want to take a picture of you two in your graduation gown.' So I go get him. She goes, 'I'm going to use this at y'all's wedding.' I was like, 'Mom, will you stop saying weird stuff? That's weird,'" laughs Tabitha.

Now, the couple keeps that picture sitting on a table in their Los Angeles home — and Tabitha laughs at the thought of her mom calling it from the beginning.

"She always knew," she says.

Related:Tabitha Brown Reflects on 20-Year Marriage to Husband Chance: 'He Is My Best Friend'

Chance went on to have a daughter named Tyleah — who Tabitha now calls her bonus daughter — with his high school girlfriend. Chance and Tabitha went to separate colleges, but eventually reconnected thanks to a gut feeling.

"He was in college in North Carolina, I was in college in Miami, and I woke up in the middle of the night one night and he was the only person I could think about," says Tabitha. "I called him at three or four in the morning and told the roommate it was an emergency."

"I told him, I was like, 'Listen, I know I probably sound crazy, but all the years you wouldn't look at me, you wouldn't speak to me, I always had this feeling in my stomach. I just woke up in the middle of the night, I'm here Miami, and I think that I'm in love with you. I think that all those years, that's what it was. We're supposed to be together. I'm in love with you.'"

Though he didn't say much that night, he called her back the night next day and the rest was history. They have been married for two decades and share two additional kids: Queston, 11, and Choyce, 21.

"It's such a beautiful journey," says Tabitha. "I wouldn't want to do it with nobody else."

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