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

Willie and Christina Geist have been married since 2003

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

They met in sixth grade and their friendship eventually turned into love. “I have a very romantic secret. I made out with her on the roof of my friend’s house with some warm Bud Light in the red-hot fall of 1991,” Willie recalled of the big turning point in their relationship during a 2022 appearance on Today. “We were like, was that a thing, or was it just a moment? And it turned out it was a thing.”

Fast-forward several decades later and the pair are happily married, living in New York City and raising their teenage children Lucie and George.

“This is a long game. We’ve been partners in life since such a young age since — long before having children or having the careers we have now — and we'll be partners on the other side of it,” Christina told Glamour. “I can look backward and appreciate how far we’ve come, and I can look forward to all the chapters that are coming down the road.”

According to Willie, laughter keeps them going even in hard times. “Something funny happens and you get to enjoy it with the girl you saw across the room in sixth grade, who's every bit the person you’d hoped they would be 33 years later," he added.

Here’s everything to know about Christina Geist, writer and wife of Today’s Willie Geist.

She’s from New Jersey

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

She’s a children’s book author

Christina is a New York Times-bestselling children’s book author, entrepreneur and brand strategist. Her first book, Buddy’s Bedtime Battery, was published in 2016. She’s written several more books for kids, including Sorry Grown-Ups, You Can’t Go To School! and Buddy's New Buddy.

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

Christina and Willie were good friends as kids

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

The two immediately noticed one another, young as they were. “On the first day, Christina had a bunch of friends from elementary school, whereas I was the new kid from the other side of town, standing alone and scanning the room,” Willie remembered. “And I know it sounds like revisionist history, but this is true. 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 going to prom as each other's dates, and continued their relationship in college, though they did break up in attempts to date other people during their time at Vanderbilt University. They briefly split after graduation as they pursued post-grad careers, but reunited in 2000.

"I was so tired about having that same old conversation about how much we loved each other that I said yes,'' Christina told The New York Times of their on-again, off-again relationship status. This time it stuck, and the two got engaged shortly thereafter.

Willie proposed to her in their homeroom class

In 2002, Willie popped the question to Christina in their middle school homeroom — a full circle moment for the school sweethearts.

They were married in Puerto Rico

Willie and Christina tied the knot on May 24, 2003, in Puerto Rico, though their destination wedding didn’t go quite according to plan. As noted by their New York Times wedding announcement, the resort and hotel where they planned to stay and host their reception went bankrupt, so Christina, Willie and their families pivoted. Willie and Christina were married in a Spanish church and had their reception and dance at Palmas del Mar Country Club.

They have two children

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

According to Willie, the children help him prep for important celebrity interviews. "I'm definitely pushing 50 at this point, so when somebody who is on the younger end of celebrities come in, I do a gut check with my kids," he told PEOPLE. "They said I had 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 then there was Sydney Sweeney, when I mentioned it, my daughter was like, 'Oh my God, you're going to have Sydney Sweeney on?!' "

They split their parenting duties into morning and night

The parents established a system when their kids were young and they were trying to juggle their demanding careers and a busy family life. “I started doing Morning Joe in April 2007, and our daughter was born in June of 2007,” Willie shared. “So I’ve been getting up in the middle of the night ever since we had kids. It was harder back then, for obvious reasons, especially when we had a second child and I was walking out at four in the morning and Christina had a crying baby in her arms and one tugging at her leg. But we've always had an agreement: Christina has the mornings, and I’m around at night.” Christina did briefly put her career on hold to raise the kids, 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’s physically strong. But because he relentlessly stands up for those he loves. Even if that looks like sitting on the kitchen floor petting a sleeping puppy together after finishing the dishes last night. Quietly focusing on me, listening to my day and a challenge I’m facing - even though his day began at 4am and carried its own story - and told me (for the thousandth time) what I know in my heart … but still needed to hear.”

They celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in 2023

Christina and Willie have been married for two decades, and Christina marked the momentous occasion with a heartfelt post and a sweet photo from their wedding day. “20 years ago, I didn’t marry a TV host. I married a promising young TV producer who worked overnights and weekends and whose original time off request for our wedding was declined (it was a holiday weekend, especially tough to staff),” she shared. “I didn’t marry the guy you love on the Today Show. I married the guy I sat next to in 6th grade English class, who was so smart and funny, the spotlight just landed on him in life. I didn’t marry the guy you may 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 simply couldn’t imagine it unfolding without each other.”

Willie shared the same photo with a moving caption of his own. “Turns out even the wildest fantasy of what our life would look like 20 years after this photo was taken has fallen well short of the reality,” he wrote. “We are so lucky.”

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