INTRODUCING: Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa (w/ Colman Domingo)

0:28Hey there, SmartLess listeners. That's when you get the good stuff. One of my favorite conversations was with the legendary Coleman Domingo. We talked about his longstanding friendship with Lenny Kravitz, his full circle moment with Oprah, and the unbelievably romantic way Coleman met his now husband. Here's a little taste of that love story. So tell me the story about how you met your husband, because it doesn't sound real. You know, because it doesn't feel real, to be honest. Tell me. First of all, we're celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary in two days. amazing thank you but we met almost 20 years ago next year will be 20 years we literally met in the stone ages of technology because it and i say that because i was really minding my business one night i was i was living i lived in new york but i went to berkeley rep to do a show so on sunday night i decided to go to go to uh walgreens to get a mask i wanted to get like a queen helene mask to like get my pores together so right i go in there and walking out of walgreens was this beautiful beautiful man with hair down past his shoulders and a lip piercing and i was like what and he had the greenest eyes i don't know he just looked like something out of a fairy tale and i we just locked eyes and i i was just awestruck by it so then i came back outside I didn't even go inside.

1:54I came back out. And I'm looking at him. He's looking at me. He's with this girl. And this girl seems to be pissed off about something. But he keeps looking over at me. And I was on the phone with somebody who was just gabbing away. I said, OK, I need to go. I want to talk to this guy. And I finally hang up. By the time I hang up, he and this girl there, she's dragging him down the street, down Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley. And he keeps looking back at me. And I raised my hand and said, come back. He doesn't come back. And so I was like, so then I'm really, I'm going to tell you the full story.

2:21I was so kind of dazed about all this. I go back outside and I think, will he come back? And I thought, well, maybe he felt the same way. And I'm a romantic. Maybe he'll meet me back here next Sunday at 8 o 'clock if he felt the same way. So I put that away. Three days later, I'm trying to buy a used computer on Craigslist because I got a grant to help out with my writing. I was a struggling artist. I was on Craigslist for like a good hour. And then I was just staring at the home screen. and I remember reading all those Craig's List misconnections and I thought well what if I wrote one of those oh my gosh so I started just reading them and then I get to the second page third from the top and I see it says saw you outside of Walgreens Berkeley I literally jumped the fuck up and I was get the fuck out of here that's me I click on it I almost get clicked on it like I was scared, like I clicked it.

3:17And he described me and my faux hawk, because it was 20 years ago and I had a faux hawk. And he described me to a T and said, I'm sorry, we were lost and my friend was rushing off. I hope this finds you. Apparently he posted that just an hour before. He tried to post it three times before, but it didn't go up until like an hour before. I reached out to him by email. We agreed to meet up two days later in San Francisco at this bar named Dalva, called Dalva. I go in there. We have a beautiful night. I'm trying to be a good boy. He wants me to go home with him. I'm like, I'm trying to, you know. Make him earn it a little bit more.

4:01Or I'm trying not to be a whore. Yes, exactly. Yes, I got it. I'm with you. I understand. You understand. So I was like, you know, I'm trying to practice some good behavior. So I was like, well, how about this? I'll go home with you, but we can just, let's just cuddle tonight. because something about him I really liked. I just really liked him. And so we're laying there and I couldn't sleep. It's about four in the morning. And I just say this quietly. I didn't think he was awake or anything. I just said, I think I love you and you're about to change my life. Oh my God. And he heard me, but he didn't say anything.

4:31And so we've been together ever since. Like when I tell you. Oh my God. And then get this. Here's the coda to the story. There's a coda. We believe we were supposed to meet two years before because we started to find out. I was like, oh, my agent is in the building on Gary Street in San Francisco. Oh, really? I used to work on Gary Street. I used to work for Gucci. I was a tailor at that same building. I was like, really? Oh, yeah. What floor was it on? I said, my agent was on the sixth floor. He's like, oh, my God. I worked on the fifth floor. And then we both remembered this one moment. To hear the rest of the story, to find out what happened, go listen to the episode and be sure to check out the other great conversations I've had with folks like Rob Lowe, Jeremy Renner, Tyler Perry, Selma Hayek, Alec Baldwin, my own daughter Lola, and so many more.

5:26So download my podcast, Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, wherever you get your podcasts. You're going to love it.