Today correspondent shocked Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer live on air by revealing she’s expecting her first child.
Emilie Ikeda told her co-hosts the big news on August 31 during 3rd Hour of Today, where Ikeda was filling in for Al Roker.
The 32-year-old journalist told Melvin and Dreyer that her weekend was “best encapsulated with pictures.” The show panned to images of her and her husband holding up an ultrasound.
As Melvin and Dreyer exclaimed in response, Ikeda laughed, “For those at home, they legitimately don’t know. I’m surprising them right now.”
“Wait, are you serious?!” asked Dreyer. Ikeda responded that she is five months pregnant and due in January. Dreyer, 45, and Melvin, 47, congratulated the journalist.
“This is so exciting!” said Melvin, giving his colleague a hug.
Ikeda, who has been covering the Lindsay Clancy murder trial for NBC News, told Dreyer she’d been listening to her parenting podcast, Parent Chat, in preparation. Dreyer herself has three children with her ex-husband, NBC News producer and cameraman Brian Fichera.
“Now, does it make sense that I’m such a loyal listener of your Parent Chat podcast?” Ikeda asked Dreyer.
“I was wondering!” Dreyer said. “You were just talking about the last episode. I was like, ‘Thanks for your support, but I don’t know if it’s your thing.’”
Ikeda shared the announcement shortly after the show on Instagram, writing, “Bursting with gratitude…Praying for good health…And sharing with so much joy… that Baby is due in January 💛.”
She told Today.com that she and her husband are opting not to know the gender of their baby. “I think in a world filled with instant information, there are few genuine surprises, and this feels like the ultimate surprise,” she said.
The NBC correspondent joined the organization in 2021. She and her husband, Pat, were married in 2022.
“I’m so excited,” Ikeda told her colleagues on air, “And now I’m in the stage where I can feel the baby kicking, which is miraculous. I might be in a bad mood. I might be preoccupied. I might be into a script and then I feel this baby kick and I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s my buddy.’”
