You Won’t Believe What Name CRAIG MELVIN’s Wife Uses For Him In Her Phone And The HILARIOUS Story Behind It Will Leave You In STITCHES

During a 2021 episode of TODAY, viewers were treated to a delightful surprise when sportscaster Lindsay Czarniak joined her husband, co-anchor Craig Melvin, for the show.

The couple, known for their endearing bond and playful banter, shared a humorous moment during the episode that tickled viewers. During “Which Melvin Is It?” — a segment testing TODAY‘s Sheinelle Jones about her knowledge of the couple — Melvin and Czarniak had us cackling as they gave a sneak peek into their relationship. One question asked Jones, “Which Melvin has the other stored under a fake name in their cell phone?”

Czarniak eventually came clean, admitting that she was the one who had saved Melvin in her phone under a mysterious moniker: Jake Milstein. What’s the deal with Jake, you may wonder? The couple dished all the humorous details by the end of the heartwarming TODAY episode.

Craig Melvin’s wife Lindsay Czarniak explains why she gets calls from “Jake Milstein”

No, Melvin doesn’t have an alternative identity. Czarniak revealed that Jake is a real person, their former producer and coworker from their time at the NBC affiliate, WRC-TV, in Washington, D.C. The station is where the couple first met.

The lore begins after Melvin joined the news team in 2008, when he received Melstein’s company cellphone, which the producer left behind after leaving to take a job in Seattle. “So when [Melvin] called me, it came up in my phone, which was also a station phone, as Jake Milstein,” Czarniak explained. “So when he calls me, it pops up as Jake Milstein, and it’s become a thing where I see it, and it’s him.”

Sure, Melvin has now been the apple of Czarniak’s eye for over a decade, but Czarniak isn’t swapping her husband’s contact information anytime soon. “You know how TV is, it’s like sports, it’s become a superstition, completely,” Czarniak said.

Over the years, Czarniak has even had friends who have seen her getting a call from her husband, questioning who the mysterious Jake Milstein might be. Melvin, visibly amused, teased, “Like, who’s she stepping out on?”

“Jake exists, and he doesn’t know, so I’m really sorry,” Lindsay said. “This is highly awkward.”

Craig Melvin and Lindsay Czarniak on TODAY on January 14, 2021. Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC

Craig Melvin and Lindsay Czarniak’s adorable newsroom meet-cute

While the couple nowadays raises their two in the Connecticut suburbs, Melvin and Czarniak’s love story began in D.C. when the broadcasters met at work, according to the The Washington Post. After being friends for months, their first date went swimmingly.

“That night when we met, there was something that clicked,” Czarniak said. “And it wasn’t necessarily that I knew, ‘I have to be with this guy.’ But it was like, ‘I don’t want to be with anyone else that I’d hung out with.’ It felt like being with the person that really gets you and that you’ve known for a really, really long time.”

After tying the knot in 2011, the couple started a family together and have celebrated many anniversaries since. In 2021, Melvin shared a sweet message to the mother of his two children on Instagram alongside a photo of Czarniak chilling on the couch with their son, Delano and daughter, Sybil.

“Happy Mother’s Day to the glue who keeps it all together,” Melvin captioned the sweet post.