Kelly Clarkson Surprises ‘Today’s Willie Geist With Someone From His Past (VIDEO)

Paige Strout June 20, 2025, 9:59 am

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Willie Geist and Kelly Clarkson on 'The Kelly Clarkson Show,' Episode BP168 — Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal

Kelly Clarkson planned a heartfelt reunion for Today‘s Willie Geist on her eponymous talk show.

Geist recalled meeting his wife, Christina, when they were sixth-grade classmates on the Wednesday, June 18, episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. “We were buddies for a long time, then we started dating our junior year in high school,” he shared. “And then, we actually went to college together, broke up in our twenties, as we lived in different cities, and then found each other again later. So, it wasn’t a straight line all the way through, which I think in the long run worked out better.”

When asked who introduced the pair, Geist credited his sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Kaplan. To his surprise, Clarkson shocked him by revealing his former teacher was in the show’s studio audience.

“Willie, you can imagine my surprise that I’m here today [on] The Kelly Clarkson Show,” Kaplan said to his past pupil. “I got a call from them to come here. I was very happy to do it. I haven’t seen you in, what, 39 years? I know I’ve changed a lot, but so have you.”

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Kaplan added, “I don’t know whether it was kismet or karma that brought you and Christina together in my homeroom [but] I had nothing to do with it.”

In addition to thanking Kaplan for laying the groundwork of his marriage, Geist noted that he thought Christina was “cute” when he first met her as the new kid in school. “Without Mr. Kaplan, without that homeroom, there’s no me and Christina,” Geist said before he, Clarkson, and the show’s audience gave Kaplan a round of applause.

Geist and his wife tied the knot in 2003 and became parents with the birth of their daughter, Lucie, in 2007. The couple grew their family again by welcoming their son, George, in 2009. Geist began filling in for Matt Lauer and other Today hosts on the NBC morning show the following year before officially joining the series as a third-hour cohost in 2012.

Geist has been hosting Sunday Today since 2016, on which he covers the latest news and sits down with pop culture’s biggest stars for his famous “Sunday Sitdown” interviews. In recent months, Geist has stepped in as a Today With Jenna & Friends cohost following Hoda Kotb‘s departure from Today earlier this year.

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