NEED TO KNOW
-
Al Roker and Deborah Roberts have been married since 1995
-
The couple met on the Today show in 1990, and started dating about two years later
-
In June 2025, they were both honored by the Television Academy for their long careers
Al Roker and his wife, Deborah Roberts, are a television power couple.
The pair have been married for nearly 30 years, and viewers tune in regularly to see them, with Al as a longtime host on the Today show, and Deborah as co-anchor on 20/20.
In June 2025, both of them were honored by the Television Academy: Al received a Lifetime Achievement Award while Deborah was inducted into the Silver Circle Honor Society.
Though the couple will mark three decades together later this fall, Deborah has revealed that she is still “discovering” things about her husband.
“I have to say, I’m not learning, learning about him, but I’m just discovering,” she said during a September 2024 appearance on The View. “Like, ‘You’re more stubborn than I ever realized.’ You know, I’m just like, I’m shocked.”
So who is Al Roker’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Deborah Roberts and her relationship with the TV personality.
She’s from Georgia
Roy Rochlin/Getty
Al Roker and Deborah Roberts attend the 2023 Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic on June 3, 2023 in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Deborah was born to Ben and Ruth Roberts on Sept. 20, 1960, in Perry, Ga. She was the seventh of nine children raised in Perry, Ga., where she recalled tuning into the news with her family.
“At home we watched CBS Evening News every night with Walter Cronkite,” she told Garden & Gun for the June/July 2023 issue. Deborah took note of broadcast journalists like Connie Chung, Lem Tucker and Michele Clark.
Deborah went on to attend the University of Georgia, and after graduating with a broadcast news degree in 1982, she eventually ended up in New York City. While Deborah has lived and worked in the Big Apple, she hasn’t forgotten her roots, including its “simplicity, genteel manners, food, and sweet tea.”
“I’ve been in New York for almost thirty years, and I’m still Southern,” she told the outlet. “New York is a sophisticated, big city, and some people think Southerners are backwoods folks who aren’t in step with modern society. I am a voice a lot of the time, because Southerners are not a monolith, and I’m able to [bring that perspective] to my reporting.”
She’s a broadcast journalist and published author
Arturo Holmes/Peacock via Getty
Deborah Robert and Al Roker attend the ‘SNL: 50 Homecoming Concert’ on February 14, 2025 in New York.
Deborah is an award-winning journalist who has been with ABC News for 30 years, first joining in 1995. During her tenure at the network, Deborah has reported for Nightline, Good Morning America, and World News Tonight and has been a guest co-host on The View.
Deborah won a prestigious Peabody Award in 2021 for her 20/20 special, “Say Her Name: Breonna Taylor,” per her bio. In 2023, she followed in the footsteps of one of her heroes, Barbara Walters, becoming a co-anchor on the long-running investigative news series, 20/20.
“Carrying on the legacy that Barbara Walters began at 20/20 is nothing short of just an honor for me. An absolutely honor,” she said on the red carpet at the 2025 Tribeca Festival premiere for Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything. “Every time I’m out doing an interview I think about, ‘What would Barbara do?’ “
In addition to her broadcast work, Deborah has written two books, Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life in 2023 and Sisters Loved and Treasured: Stories of Unbreakable Bonds, out in October 2025. She also co-authored one with her husband, 2016’s Been There, Done That: Family Wisdom For Modern Times.
She met Al on the Today show in 1990
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
Deborah Roberts and Al Roker on NBC’s ‘Today’ show.
In 1990, Deborah joined Today as a correspondent, where she crossed paths with her future husband. At the time, Al was married to his first wife, Alice Bell, so they started as friends.
“Al was so sweet. He showed me pictures of his daughter and talked about his family,” Deborah told PEOPLE in April 1999. (Al and Alice welcomed one child together, Courtney.)
Al and Deborah kept in touch through email as her work took her to Miami. He and his wife separated in 1992, and around that time, Deborah returned to N.Y.C. to work at Dateline.
Soon after, she was sent to cover the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and asked Al to look after her apartment. When Deborah returned, her fridge was stocked, and flowers welcomed her home.
“He would ask me out, and we would go to dinner or maybe lunch, but I was dating other people. Then one thing led to another,” she explained.
They married in 1995
Slaven Vlasic/Getty
Deborah Roberts and Al Roker attend the CARE Impact Awards 2023 on November 8, 2023 in New York City.
After about two years of dating, Al proposed to Deborah on New Year’s Day in 1994 while they were on a business trip in Arizona, he recalled to PEOPLE. Al popped the question when they stopped at the Grand Canyon.
The following fall, they wed on Sept. 16, 1995, per The New York Times. Though the pair have been married for almost 30 years, Al and Deborah are still learning about each other.
“I don’t feel like we have it figured out,” Deborah said on Sherri in October 2023. “I think we just have a commitment every day to keep trying to figure it out, and I think that we will talk about mistakes we’ve made, we’ll think about things that we do well.”
She continued, “Marriage is hard, but if you really feel devoted to each other, and you want to keep working to figure it out together … for 28 years we keep showing up.”
In a 2022 ABC News special marking two years since the pandemic, Deborah revealed how she and Al “formed a tighter and more precious bond.” She added, “I marveled at how Al jumped in to take care of me and his family and I fell deeper for him.”
She and Al have a blended family, including their daughter and son
Leila Roker Instagram Al Roker and Deborah Roberts with their kids.
The couple share two children: Leila, born on Nov. 17, 1998, and Nick, who followed on July 18, 2002. They joined Al’s daughter, Courtney, who was born in May 1987.
Leila went on to follow in her dad’s footsteps and studied journalism. Today, she lives in Paris as a freelance writer and social media specialist, according to her Instagram. Most recently, Leila got engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Sylvain Gricourt.
“We could not be happier and more joyful!!!! Welcome to the family Sylvain! Now let’s plan a wedding!” Deborah wrote in a comment.
Nick was later diagnosed with autism, and while Al and Deborah weren’t sure what his future would look like, they witnessed him overcome so much. “We watched him blossom,” they told PEOPLE in March 2018.
When Nick graduated from college in May 2025, Al dedicated a sweet Instagram post to him. “We could not be prouder of how hard he has worked and is determined to get his #bachelorsdegree,” he wrote. “Way to go, my boy.”
In a May 2023 Instagram post, Deborah celebrated Courtney’s birthday with a throwback photo of them.
“Many, many years ago I met this little beauty. We weren’t sure what to make of each other. But soon, a connection was made which deepened into a warm and loving relationship,” the journalist penned. “I count myself fortunate to have you in my life.”
She is “fitness-oriented”
Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Deborah Roberts and Al Roker attend the ‘Origin’ premiere on November 30, 2023 in New York City.
Anyone who follows Deborah on social media knows she takes her fitness seriously. She regularly posts videos and photos from her gym training sessions.
During an October 2023 interview on Sherri, when asked about her workouts, she said, “I love to run. People know that I love health, and I’m out running in the park, and I’m very fitness-oriented.”
She celebrated Al when he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award
Deborah Roberts/ Instagram
Al Roker with wife Deborah Roberts and their son Nick Roker in June 2025.
The 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards on June 25 was a special night for the couple, where they were both recognized for their long careers in television news.
Deborah was honored with an induction into the Silver Circle Honor Society — a recognition for those whose television careers have spanned 25 years and more — and Al was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Honor.
“This recognition really is truly the honor of a lifetime — a lifetime of happy accidents and good fortune,” he said in his acceptance speech, per Today.
After thanking his co-workers and co-anchors at Today, Al said, “From the people I work with to the people I live with, I’ve got an embarrassment of riches.”
In an Instagram post recounting the memorable ceremony, Deborah wrote how it was “oh so special” to share the evening “with my love and life partner,” calling it “a night to remember.”
Read the original article on People
