'Weekend Today' Stars Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander Are Actually BFFs in Real Life
Kristen Welker is the new co-anchor at Weekend Today alongside Peter Alexander.
Kristen replaces Sheinelle Jones, who stepped down in late December to spend more time with her family.
Kristen started as an intern at Today back in 1997. She is married to her husband of two years, John Hughes.
From now on, Saturday mornings at Weekend Today will star NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker. As announced by Carson Daly, Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker on Friday, Kristen will now run the morning program along with Peter Alexander, following Sheinelle Jones's departure in late December.
"It is the honor of a lifetime," she said on the Today show.
In light of the Weekend Today casting change, here are some interesting facts to know about Kristen:
Kristen has long been in the Today family.
Before she became a highly accomplished journalist, Kristen interned at the Today show back in 1997 while studying history at Harvard. She also worked as a researcher at Weekend Today before getting her first on-air job at KRCR-TV in Redding, California. After that, she moved on to the NBC affiliate WCAU in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (where she's from originally).
Five years later, she joined NBC News and eventually became the official White House correspondent. Over the years, she's filled in on NBC Nightly News and MSNBC. Most recently, Kristen moderated the all-female-panelist Democratic Presidential Debate on MSNBC in November. Now, she's found a home on Weekend Today.
Kristen and her husband have the cutest love story.
A post shared by Kristen Welker (@kristen.welker) on Oct 18, 2019 at 7:36pm PDT
Kristen and her husband, a marketing director named John Hughes, got married on March 4, 2017 in Philadelphia. The two met back in 2014 thanks to their mutual friends setting them up together. Kristen recalled to The New York Times that John won her over officially one night when he made her a presidential trivia crossword puzzle.
In 2016, John dropped to one knee and asked Kristen to be his wife right in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. — the perfect location for a political reporter.
She's already best buds with her Weekend Today co-star Peter Alexander.
While announcing her new Weekend Today job, Peter called Kristen his "big little sister," and went on to say that "she is one of my best friends in the world, not just professionally, but personally. I really do consider her part of my family." Likewise, Kristen said Peter was like her "brother."
A post shared by Kristen Welker (@kristen.welker) on Aug 27, 2019 at 7:26am PDT
The New York Times reports that Kristen used to vent to Peter about her bad dates and relationships before meeting John.
Can't wait to see what fun they will bring to the weekend program!
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