‘Today’ Contributor Bobbie Thomas Details First Date Since Husband’s Death

Today Show style contributor Bobbie Thomas is back to dating, two years after her husband Michael Maron died in December 2020. Thomas began using dating apps in early March and went on her first date on March 28. The experience was “overwhelming,” Thomas wrote, adding that she found herself thinking about Marion after that first date.

Marion died on Dec. 1, 2020, after a long illness. Thomas and Marion married in 2013 at Kathie Lee Gifford’s home. Marion suffered an ischemic stroke at 40 years old in April 2019. Thomas and Maron welcomed their son, Miles, 5, via IVF after Marion struggled with infertility.

More than two years after Marion’s death, Thomas launched “Bobbie’s Dating Diary” on Today.com, where she plans to keep viewers up to date on her dating future. Thomas was inspired after Today anchor Cheinelle Jones told her about an interview with another widow, Julie Thomason, who talked about how sadness and joy can coexist in February. Thomason told Jones she recently met someone and found her “heart expanded” to love more. This led Thomas to wonder if she can make space for her own joy and love, even as her husband’s death “still leaves a gaping hole in my heart.” Miles also “monopolizes” her heart, Thomas wrote.

On March 6, Thomas met with her producer Kelsey and her friend, Tinder CMO Melissa Hobley. They helped her set up profiles on dating apps and she quickly began receiving likes. “Though my conflicting emotions were overwhelming, I knew that these “feels” were a nerve ending to connect with others,” Thomas wrote. “Direct message after message, comment after comment, conversation after conversation – so many stories of love and loss, heartache and hope. I realized that I’m not alone.”

Thomas used Tinder, Hinge, and The League to find matches. She finally went on her first date on March 28. Ironically, the man was not someone she met through any of the apps. Instead, a friend set her up on a blind date.

“He was kind and exactly what I had asked for,” Thomas wrote. “Polite to the staff, warm and easy to talk to. It was lovely to have an adult conversation and a break from routine, but I couldn’t help feeling disconnected. As I sat across from him and he shared things about his life, I heard what he was saying but the energy was louder. He seemed so ready to plan a wedding, start a family – that first chapter of adult life, one that feels long ago for me.”

The day after the date, Thomas felt “overwhelmingly sad” because she was “missing Michael more than ever.” She felt “angry” because he didn’t have a part in her “second chapter.” She also began thinking of a parent she met during a platonic meeting. He had also lost his spouse and “unexpected feelings” came up. She couldn’t stop thinking about the connection they had.

“Although the focus was on introducing the kids, there was an instant comfort with someone I had just met minutes before,” Thomas wrote. “It was something I hadn’t been able to do: focus on the now, and not what had happened. But it wasn’t a date… was it? I can’t stop thinking about the connection, and now I’m secretly hoping for a one-on-one coffee with him – but I’m not sure how or if that would ever happen.”