'The Talk' Cohost Elaine Welteroth's Husband Jonathan Singletary Proprosed to Her in the Sweetest Way

From Good Housekeeping

Months before becoming a new cohost on The Talk, Elaine Welteroth appeared on the CBS daytime show to gush about her husband, musician Jonathan Singletary, whom she married this past May.

"I feel like we're in an extended honeymoon period, because of the quarantine," Elaine told cohosts Sharon Osbourne, Carrie Ann Inaba, Sheryl Underwood, and Eve during an October 2020 taping of The Talk. "We're like on lockdown, love lockdown together."

Despite only tying the knot months ago, the two have known each other since their early teen years, according to what the Project Runway judge told Repeller.com. Both grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, went to the same church, and had moms who were in the same choir.

Although Jonathan "noticed" Elaine as a teen and the two would occasionally see each other when they would come home from college for the holiday season, he maintains that they didn't start to talk outside of church until December 2013. It was then that Jonathan was seeking a job in New York — where Eliane had been since 2008 — and contacted Elaine on Facebook.

"In my mind it was absolutely innocent," Elaine recalled to outlet. "I remember him as the nice guy from church. It was definitely a friend-zone thing in my mind. But when he arrived I was like, 'Where did these shoulders come from?'"

By the end of the night, Elaine was starting to develop feelings for Jonathan — that is, until he revealed he had a girlfriend. For this reason, the two friend-zoned each other for a while. Even when Jonathan eventually broke it off with his girlfriend, and he and Elaine reconnected when he landed a music tech job in the Big Apple, the former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue was still a bit hesitant to take things further.

"I remember thinking, 'He’s a great guy, but he just got out of a serious relationship. He is fresh to New York. He needs to, like, do the New York single thing,'" Elaine said. "So when I came back [from a trip to LA], we set all of these rules: we can hang out, but like it’s not like that."

Months later, though, the two finally decided to give dating a shot — and needless to say, things worked out for the pair. Two-and-a-half years into their relationship, Jonathan and Elaine got engaged.

Per Vogue, Jonathan first set up his proposal when he told Elaine that he couldn't travel back to California with her for Christmas after landing a last-minute gig. When Elaine got home, everyone sat around to watch a "family video." Turns out, the video was filled with photos of Elaine and footage of Jonathan driving up to her parents' house with flowers in hand. Moments later, Jonathan strolled into the living room while singing their song, "Magic" by Coldplay, and got down on one knee.

"I was in complete shock, to the point that I couldn’t even speak," Elaine told Vogue. "Eventually I managed to say, 'Of course.'"

Though they planned early on to get married on May 10, 2020, their dream wedding had to be altered when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Understandably, they were bummed about having to change their plans. Even still, Elaine and Jonathan were so set on saying their vows on their original wedding date.

"I didn't want to give up the date," Elaine told The New York Times. "I said, 'Jonathan, I am marrying you on 5-10-20, even if it has to be on my stoop in Brooklyn, even if it's in my sweats.' ... It took us three-and-a-half years to get to this place of readiness in our relationship, and I wanted to celebrate that."

And so, the couple tied the knot from their Brooklyn brownstone stoop, while other wedding attendees celebrated with the happy couple on Zoom.

Reflecting on their big day, Jonathan told The Knot that their marriage was an important moment of joy for the pair, preceding what would be a summer full of protests following the murder of George Floyd.

"This thing is loud right now, but African-Americans and Black people have been dealing with tragedy and trauma and finding ways to smile through it, laugh through it, dance through it, celebrate through it, connect to our communities through it as our only way of surviving and being resilient," Jonathan told the bridal magazine while reflecting on his wedding day. "We've literally been told that our wedding was one of the brightest moments in a dark time that kind of got darker. It definitely was for us ..."

Elaine added that she thinks it's important to remember that the Black Lives Matter movement also means fighting for "Black love, Black joy, and Black peace."

"It’s why celebrating Black love is important because we still have to defend why Black lives matter," she explained. "I think when you see examples of Black love in this time, it helps to contextualize. It helps bring us all to the table, and it helps us see each other in this."

Since their wedding day, the couple has moved to LA, which is close to where Elaine films The Talk every week day. Meanwhile, Jonathan is continuing to make music as the frontman of the rock-and-soul band Harville. He recently released his new single "Never Like This" this past fall.

While reflecting on her marriage to Jonathan, Elaine made it clear that she thinks she found her man just at the right time in her life.

"With the relationship I'm in now, we had a long engagement — about three-and-a-half years. And we've been together for about six-and-a-half, and I've known him since I was 13," she said on The Talk last fall. "I really had to suss this one out, I really had to get to know him, but also get to know myself and make a lot of mistakes in order to understand what it is I really need."

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