‘Today’ Show Co-Host Dishes on Reuniting With Ex-Fiancé

Reconnecting with a former love can be an incredibly emotional experience, and TODAY show co-host Jill Martin recently opened up doing just that. In a special titled The New Rules for Finding Love — for TODAY All Day — Martin got candid about her relationship with Erik Brooks, who is both her former and current fiancé. Recalling a pivotal moment in their journey, Martin recalled telling Brooks during a heated exchange, “If you walk out this door, we will never speak again.”

“One day, he was like, ‘I can’t fight anymore.’ And I was really bad for a really long time. It caused me to re-evaluate what was important to me,” she said in a preview of the special. Martin and Brooks met in 2017 and got engaged in 2019. The pair broke off their engagement in 2020,  Then, in 2021, the pair rekindled their romance and are once again engaged. In addition to the new special, Martin also penned an essay for TODAY, in which she speaks about rekindling her romance with Brooks. “Getting back together with Erik, after a 16-month split with no contact, was complicated yet beautiful in some ways. The process was important. It gave me confidence both in our relationship and as a woman,” she wrote.

Martin added, “Although the ‘baggage’ we each brought to the relationship the first time around didn’t match up, it does now. We did the work. Nobody is perfect. Everybody has stuff. It’s about whose stuff you can deal with. Finding love is like a puzzle.”

Not only does Martin use her essay to share her story, she also spent time challenging her generation “to rewrite the antiquated dating rules” they grew up believing in. “We need new dating rules – and not the ones I grew up with, either. The old rules that were written about and talked about when I was growing up are outdated – waiting three days before calling someone back, saying you aren’t available even when you are, always ending the date or conversation first.”

She continued, “I don’t believe that is the way to find your perfect person. I believe many of those actions just represent rude behavior and game-playing. When I was growing up, I would head home to look for the red light on the house phone, indicating I had a message. Now, everyone knows that most of us have our phones at all times and see texts, if not instantaneously, within a few hours.” The New Rules for Finding Love airs April 4 at 11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET on TODAY All Day.