Today’s Willie Geist is fully aware of his so-called “TV boyfriend” status — but do his kids know they’re living with television royalty?
“Fairly certain my kids are not aware of it,” Geist, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly while chatting about his upcoming Sunday Sitdown Live interview with guest Ina Garten. “Jenna [Bush Hager] crowned me that on the air, and it was based on someone else … Somebody was the internet’s boyfriend. Something like that. So, I mean, there are other nominees.”
The forever-humble Geist went on to add that it’s “certainly an honor” to capture the affections of viewers worldwide, even though he’s not entirely sure what it means to be someone’s “TV boyfriend.”
“I don’t quite know what it means,” he admitted to Us. “But whenever Jenna Bush Hager puts a crown on you, you just take it, smile and wave.”
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Geist and his wife of over 20 years, Christina, share two children together — daughter Lucie Joy, born in June 2007, and son George William, born in July 2009.
Now that he’s the father to two teenagers, Geist admits that while viewers might be enamored by his impressive television career, million dollar smile and interviewing skills — skills he flexes weekly on Morning Joe and during Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist — he’s viewed as the “annoying dad” at home.
“I get it, because I have a teenage daughter, but I always come in late and I’m the annoying dad,” Geist told Us of his woefully inept pop culture knowledge, including his little-to-no understanding of current Real Housewives lore.
“You can’t drop in on the finale and start asking all the questions,” he continued, before sharing that if he had to pick one popular reality TV series he is clued in on, it would be The Bachelor.
“I came in late with two episodes left, and I was like, ‘I need a full debrief on who these people are,’” he continued of his Bachelor viewership. “When I watch The Housewives is when Andy [Cohen] has me on Watch What Happens Live, and usually I just go directly to him for a debrief, which is, I mean, talk about a great source.”
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When he’s not the “annoying dad,” Geist is the nostalgic dad, it seems. The Morning Joe co-host told Us that with high school graduation “coming quicker every day” for his kids — especially his daughter — he is recalling the realities of being a parent and watching your kids grow up way too fast.
“It’s such a cliché that every parent who has ever had a child will tell you, but once you’re in it you really feel it,” he told Us. “One minute you’re walking out of the hospital with a tiny person in a car seat wondering how you’re going to do it … and the next minute they’re getting ready to get measures for a cap and gown for high school graduation and you just cannot believe it.”
He continued of his daughter, “And while I’m having my dad feelings, because she is our first to go off as well, I’m just so excited for her to go do her thing and go become who she’s going to be. Because I know it’s going to be somebody really, really special.”
