All About John Hughes? Who Is Kristen Welker's Husband

Kristen Welker and her husband, John Hughes, have another baby on the way!

The Meet the Press host and Hughes have been married since 2017. In 2021, the couple welcomed their first child together, daughter Margot, and in May 2024, they announced they were expecting their second child.

Welker and Hughes tried for three years to conceive their first child, ultimately electing to use a surrogate after years of failed in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.

"That really is my message to other families who are going through infertility: when you feel alone, when you feel hopeless, do not give up, keep pushing forward because it is so worth it in the end,” Welker told PEOPLE in April 2023.

So who is Kristen Welker’s husband? Here’s everything to know about John Hughes and his relationship with the NBC host.

At the time of their wedding in 2017, Hughes was a marketing director at Merck, a pharmaceutical company. He was based in Philadelphia at the time, per The New York Times.

He has since stayed off LinkedIn, but while it may be unclear whether he is still working in marketing, Welker did joke to PEOPLE in August 2020 that he could pursue a career as a producer. While they were both working from amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Hughes helped her film her NBC segment, even learning how to "run a mean teleprompter."

“He's just so supportive, and just jumps right in,” she said. “We joke that he'll be joining the union soon, because he knows how to use all of the equipment.”

Before Welker met Hughes in October 2014, she was in her late 30s and had accepted that marriage may not happen for her, she told NYT in 2017. However, after meeting Hughes, she started becoming more optimistic.

When she arrived at their first date in Philadelphia, Hughes was overwhelmed by how put together Welker was — and came up with a plan to win her over.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘If I can just make her laugh, maybe I’ll have a chance,’ ” he said.

While Welker almost missed their second date — showing up to the restaurant over two hours late thanks to breaking news she had to cover — Hughes wasn’t phased. Instead, he presented her with a handmade gift: a crossword puzzle of presidential trivia with clues he wrote himself.

“That’s the moment he got me,” she said. “As a White House correspondent, it was so touching, and it marked him different than anyone else I ever dated.”

Six months into their relationship, Welker and Hughes faced their first hurdle when the former White House correspondent began traveling as she covered the presidential campaign, they told NYT. As Welker bounced around across the country, Hughes flew to meet her, sometimes just to spend a few hours together.

On one occasion, his flight was canceled due to a snowstorm, but Hughes was undeterred: he got on an Amtrak train to Boston and rented a car to meet her at her hotel.

“We were head over heels for each other,” he said. “But it was tough. We never knew where she was going to be.”

Hughes wanted his proposal to Welker to be special, so he planned the moment to occur within the 24 hours they had together in Washington D.C., between campaign stops. After attending a real estate open house — as they were planning to move in togeth -

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er — Hughes directed the cab driver to the Lincoln Memorial before their dinner reservation.

“I wanted to ask her outside in a place you could walk by years later and tell your kids that this was the spot we got engaged,” Hughes told NYT.

Once outside, he got down on one knee, and before he could finish asking Welker the big question, she screamed and responded, “Yes!”

The couple got married on March 4, 2017, at The Hyatt at the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia. They celebrated their special day with family and friends, including the children of the bridesmaids who accompanied Welker down the aisle.

For the big day, Welker wore a Vera Wang dress while Hughes opted for a Michael Kors tuxedo, and they enjoyed their first dance to Etta James’ “At Last.”

Welker and Hughes struggled for three years to conceive a child, ultimately turning to a surrogate to help them on their journey.

"I consulted with four different doctors,” she told PEOPLE in September 2021. “The lowest moment was when that fourth doctor called me and said, 'We've run all the tests. We've looked at everything. We just don't think that you are going to be able to carry a child.' I thought, 'How is this ever going to happen?' "

However, Welker did not give up and, in 2019, was matched with a surrogate. Her and Hughes’ daughter, Margot Lane, was born on June 12, 2021.

"I was the first person to catch her and to hold her, I felt the most incredible bond with her, and that maternal instinct kicked in immediately," she told PEOPLE a few months later of the special moment. "And all of my doubts and fears went away, and then all of the focus was just on her and this beautiful being."

"And it was important to share my journey, and my journey with John, to have Margot because I wanted people to know that they're not alone, that there's a community of people, and that there's a community to support you through," Welker continued. "Whether you're struggling with infertility or anything, that sometimes by sharing your story and speaking out, you find support and love in places that you could have never imagined."

In May 2024, Welker announced that she and Hughes were expecting their second child, also via surrogate: a baby boy due in June.

"This is an extraordinary moment — there’s no doubt about that," Welker told PEOPLE.

She added that Margot was already getting excited to be a big sister, telling her peers that she was going to have a little brother soon.

"Margot has been telling her classmates that Mama and Dada are getting her a baby brother for her birthday," Welker said. "She's very proud of the fact that her baby brother will be sleeping in her old crib, and she's even come up with a name for him: 'Lolo.' "

When she was expecting her first child, Welker admitted she was nervous about how she’d bond with the baby, but now that she’s seen how close she and Margot are, she told PEOPLE many of her worries have been assuaged.

"I really have been able to enjoy this second surrogacy journey," she said. "This experience has been very different."

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