--- ---  # Stephen Colbert Wins for Best Meet-Cute with His Wife  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 5, 2016 5:27 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - MAY 02: Stephen Colbert and Evelyn McGee-Colbert attend the "Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology" Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for People.com) NEW YORK, NY - MAY 02: Stephen Colbert and Evelyn McGee-Colbert attend the "Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology" Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for People.com)Mike Coppola—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 5, 2016 5:27 PM UTC We all know Stephen Colbert as a [whip-smart comedian](http://time.com/4385936/jimmy-kimmel-stephen-colbert-kanye-famous-parody/?iid=sr-link1) with a penchant for [biting commentary](http://time.com/4369767/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-nazi-swastika/?iid=sr-link4). But it turns out the sarcastic [funnyman](http://time.com/4371480/stephen-colbert-roller-coaster-net-neutrality/?iid=sr-link2) has a soft side, too. Before taping his “Late Show” on Monday night, he took an audience question about how he met his wife, launching into a very sweet story about the couple’s meet-cute. A younger Colbert was back home in Charleston, S.C., having just decided to end a different, serious relationship, when he and his mother went to a show together. “So I go, I walk into the lobby with my mom,” Colbert said. “I’m wearing a sharkskin suit, looking pretty good. I’m about 40 pounds lighter than I am now. And I’ve got a beard. And I walk in and I see across the lobby this woman, I think, for the first time. Not girl, woman. Beautiful woman in a black linen dress standing below one of the sconces in the lobby, and I think, ‘her!’ Honest to God, I thought, ‘There’s your wife, you’re going to marry her.'” Colbert and the mysterious woman spent the evening “shooting eyes” at each other until they finally crossed paths at the buffet table — and realized they had actually grown up together, although they’d attended different schools. Colbert was “completely taken,” he said, but wasn’t sure if she felt the same way, so decided to test her interest. “I’m going to give her one minute to get away… so I turned my back for what now is clearly, to me, the most harrowing minute of my life. What if she’d gone away? But she didn’t! She was still there when I turned around. Smiling at me. And now we’re married,” he said. They’ve been together for over 20 years. Everybody together, now: awwww. Stephen Colbert on How He Met His Wife ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4393417/stephen-colbert-wife-meet-cute/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4393417/stephen-colbert-wife-meet-cute/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Wins for Best Meet-Cute with His Wife","datePublished":"2016-07-05T17:27:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:02.782Z","description":"Turns out the comedian is a romantic at heart","url":"https://time.com/4393417/stephen-colbert-wife-meet-cute/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Television","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19a53988948b9f53/69889aa0a988ca90ca6b8801/stephen-colbert-and-wife.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19a53988948b9f53/69889aa0a988ca90ca6b8801/stephen-colbert-and-wife.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology\" Costume Institute Gala","caption":"\"Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology\" Costume Institute Gala","creditText":"Mike Coppola—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4393417/stephen-colbert-wife-meet-cute/","name":"Stephen Colbert Wins for Best Meet-Cute with His Wife"}}]}] ```