Today's Kristen Welker Welcomes First Baby Via Surrogate

Weekend Today anchor and NBC's chief White House correspondent Kristen Welker officially has a new title: mom! Read on for everything you need to know about her baby girl's sweet name.

By Samantha Schnurr Jun 14, 2021 1:29 PMTags

Kristen Welker is usually breaking news, but today, the news is about her. 

The Weekend Today anchor and NBC News' chief White House correspondent is officially a mom after welcoming her first child with husband John Hughes on Saturday, June 12, Carson Daly announced June 14 on Today. The baby girl, born with the help of a surrogate, is named Margot Lane Welker Hughes. The sweet moniker has ties to the new parents' families as Margot is after Welker's grandmother Margaret and Lane is the maiden name of Hughes' grandmother, which has continued to be passed down in his family. 

"Margot is truly the love of our lives," Welker told Today via email. "Seeing her precious face and looking into her eyes had made every minute of our journey worth it."

The journalist, who famously moderated the final debate between former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden in 2020, shared in April that they, with the help of a surrogate, had a baby on the way after years of infertility struggles.  

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As she revealed to Today, Welker and Hughes, who she wed in 2017, played special roles in the birth as the first-time mom helped catch her newborn while the new dad cut the umbilical cord. "We stayed in rooms next to each other," she told Today of their surrogate, "and visited throughout so that we and little Margot could thank her for bringing Margot into the world."

Now that their little one is finally here, Welker has plenty to share with her daughter, including the monumental night she played a unique role in. 

"Knowing that we were expecting our first child as I moderated the Presidential Debate was this little secret that I was holding," she previously said on Today. "I can't wait to tell my daughter that—that I credit her with the fact that I remained calm that night."

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