It’s not every day that you meet the love of your life while dating a completely different person, but that’s exactly what happened with acclaimed director Spike Lee and wife Tonya Lewis Lee.
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During a recent interview on the Kelly Corrigan Wonders podcast, the BlacKkKlansmen director shared the story of how he and Tonya met at the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. He was there for a trailer screening of his then-forthcoming film Malcolm X. The event would prove to be fate for the now married couple — but it happened while he was on a date with a completely different woman.
“I had a date that night,” Lee said. “So I’m going to the restroom and I see this woman coming to me — and I know it might sound corny, but it’s true — time stopped. I said, ‘Damn!’ [Laughs] And so later on, she said the same thing. So we just looked at each other and then couldn’t see [each other] anymore.”
After Lee went on to introduce the trailer for the film, he said, he and Tonya passed each other on opposite escalators.
“I’m going down the escalator, and she’s going up the escalator. So I’m going down the escalator, I gotta think quick,” he narrated. “So Itell the person I’m with, ‘I think I left my Montblanc pen upstairs,’ you know, something like that. So I make a U-turn, go back on the escalator and find her and ask her for, you know, her number.”
The two would meet back up later that week and head out on an official first date to Madonna’s “Sex” book party.
Spike and Tonya Lewis went on to wed in ‘93, and they’ve been by each other’s side ever since. Together, they share a son and daughter — Satchel and Jackson, respectively.
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