That camping trip your family still talks about? Science says it’s worth more than any toy under the tree.
The “Today” show’s Dylan Dreyer is opening up about her separation for the first time.
The 44-year-old NBC News meteorologist and anchor for Today's 3rd Hour announced in July that she and her husband Brian Fichera were separating after 12 years of marriage.
The former couple, who tied the knot in 2012, share three sons together — Calvin, 8, Oliver, 5 and Russell, 4 — according to Today.com.
On Nov. 5, Dreyer appeared as a guest co-host on “TODAY with Jenna & Friends” when she was asked about this “new chapter” of her life and how she and Fichera are navigating their roles as coparents.
And she started off by detailing how she broke the news to her trio of boys.
“We asked Calvin, ‘What do you think a family is?’” she said of her oldest son. “And he said, ‘Well, it’s a group of people that love each other.’”
“And I said, ‘That’s what we are and we will always be that for you,’” she continued. “But Mommy and Daddy work better as friends than as husband and wife.”
She went on to explain that her kids don’t care about the title because they are “surrounded by love every single day” and described it as “freeing” for her and Fichera as they move on from each other.
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For now, Dreyer and Fichera are purely focused on moving forward as friends and coparenting their kids.
She also praised Fichera for continuing to be the father their three sons need.
“The boys are surrounded by love,” she said. “Brian is at the house this morning, he’s probably watching this morning. He dropped the kids off at school — he is there every morning to get them off to school.”
“Do we eat dinner together most nights? We do. We are celebrating Thanksgiving together,” she added.
Dylan Dreyer’s separation taught her a valuable lesson about control
Elsewhere in her conversation with Jenna Bush Hager, Dreyer credited her faith with helping her fight through the emotions that come with heartbreak.
While her separation wasn’t a part of her lifelong plan, she says she feels “content” with her life.
“I feel okay every day. I come to work and smile and it’s not fake,” she told Bush Hager. “I feel genuinely happy. I’m with my kids and I’m laughing all the time. I am with Brian and I’m laughing.”
Her therapist has helped her realize that God has a plan for her and she needs to trust it.
“You don’t need to know what the outcome will be. Just follow it,” Dreyer continued. “When you don’t try to figure every part of your life out — you don’t have to control everything.”
Dreyer and Fichera first met as co-workers at NBC’s Boston affiliate station, WHDH, in the early 2000s, according to Us Weekly.
They announced their engagement in 2011 and tied the knot the following year before starting a family in 2016 — and eventually expanding it in 2020 and 2021.
On July 18, Dreyer took to Instagram to share that she and Fichera are going their separate ways.
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“We began as friends. And we will remain the closest of friends,” she wrote in the post. “We will continue to co-parent our three wonderful boys together with nothing but love and respect for one another.”
