Willie Geist announced host Ina Garten as his guest for his second-ever Sunday Sitdown Live, and the friends couldn’t help but gush over how much they love to chat with each other.
“Well, I could talk to Willie anywhere, anytime,” Garten, 77, exclusively told Us Weekly. “So he’s just fun and smart, and I love when we’re talking backstage and whatever we talk about backstage ends up on stage. So I mean, when everybody says it feels very real — it is very real.”
According to Geist, 49, the feeling is mutual.
“I love who she is and she and I always have a great time when we talk,” he told Us in a separate interview. “The truth is, it’s just sort of speaking with a friend. It doesn’t feel like an interview.”
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Geist has conducted over 530 Sunday Sitdown interviews over the last nine years on Sunday Today (with Alicia Keys, Ryan Reynolds and Billy Joel among his recent guests). He held his very first Sunday Sitdown Live with comedian Nate Bargatze in January, and Garten will mark his second live guest on Monday, May 19, at City Winery in New York City. Tickets are expected to sell out quickly.
“The truth is I just love her,” Geist told Us. “We did an interview during Covid where she made Cosmopolitans over Zoom and my wife was at home with me, and Jeffrey was home with her. And we actually — her idea — we just sat and actually had a drink. So we did our interview and then she said, ‘Let’s just sit and talk. We can’t see each other these days, so why don’t we hang out?’ She’s just such a warm, personable and unassuming person.”
He added that their longtime spouses gave them a point of mutual understanding. (Geist married wife Christina in 2003 while Garten said “I do” to husband Jeffrey in 1968.)
“I’ve known my wife since sixth grade and she and Jeffrey have been together forever, and so I think there’s some bond on that level too,” Geist said. “We have these really strong foundations in our relationships and people who have been at our side and encouraged us and supported us before anybody outside of our families in our hometowns ever knew our names. I think we share that.”
Geist has been finding ways to bond with Garten over the years, but it wasn’t until he interviewed her at her Connecticut book event earlier this year that he realized the fervor of Barefoot Contessa fans rivals that of Taylor Swift’s infamous fanbase, the Swifties.
“I fully understand how people feel about her, how passionately they feel about her, how much they love her food and her style and just her,” Geist told Us. “But it wasn’t honestly until we walked out on the stage together, and this theater of, I think, it was like 5,000 people erupted in a way that I would expect when Taylor Swift comes out on stage to start a show. It wasn’t polite applause, it was jump-to-your-feet, long-standing-ovation sort of shouting and cheering. You could feel it in my chest. And I was like, ‘Wow, I knew people loved you, but to see it up close this, it’s really extraordinary.’”
Garten called Geist “sweet” for comparing her to the singer, but she also pointed out that he makes it easy for anyone to open up. “He doesn’t talk down to anybody,” Garten told Us. “He makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room when you’re with him, and he just has a wonderful time. I mean, you just feel that. And so I find it really, it’s infectious. I love it.”
Head to Today‘s website for ticket details ahead of Sunday Sitdown Live with Willie Geist and Ina Garten. Those who can’t attend the May 19 event will be able to see the interview broadcast on the Sunday Today show. Sunday Sitdown Live will also run as a full-length podcast, and on Today Digital, Social and Today All Day.