Dang! Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee recently recalled how he and his wife met and he says he was on a date and ended up ditching her after laying eyes on his future forever girl. He said time had just “stopped.”
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While it may have been love at first sight when Spike Lee met his wife, film and television producer Tonya Lewis Lee, the same cannot be said for the woman he was on a date with when the film icon met Mrs. Lee. Recently, the ‘Do the Right Thing‘ director appeared on the ‘Kelly Corrigan Wonders‘ podcast and recalled the time he first saw his wife.
The 67-year-old Oscar winner said he was on a date with another woman in September 1992, one year before he and his wife Tonya, 58, got married. The encounter took place in Washington, D.C. at the Congressional Black Caucus, where a trailer screening was being held for his biographical drama, ‘Malcolm X.’ While Spike Lee was there with another woman, Tonya Lewis Lee was there on behalf of her father, who was the treasurer of Philip Morris at the time.
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Recalling all of the details of him ditching his date for his future wife Spike Lee said, “So, I had a date that night. So, I’m going to the restroom, and I see this woman coming to me — and I know it might sound corny, but it’s true — time stopped.” He laughingly recalled saying, ‘Damn!,’ adding, “And so later on, she said the same thing. So, we just looked at each other and then couldn’t see [each other] anymore.”
He continued, “So, the night is going on. You know, I’m there, I got to introduce the trailer for ‘Malcolm X.’ And it’s time to go. So, we’re leaving — Tonya has her version, I have my version, and there’s the real version … I’m going down the escalator, and she’s going up the escalator. So, I’m going down the escalator, I gotta think quick. So, I tell the person I’m with, ‘I think I left my Montblanc pen upstairs,’ you know, something like that.”
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Spike Lee continued to recall, “So, I make a U-turn, go back on the escalator and find her and ask her for, you know, her number.” Lee explained that he called Tonya later that week and invited her as his date to “Madonna’s ‘Sex‘ book party,” which was not going to be in Washington, D.C., and wasn’t on par with her legal professional background.
He said that after heading back to Washington, D.C. from the party, “everyone” in Tonya’s office had seen her on the news “at the book party.” He laughingly added, “She was busted.” If you ask Tonya Lewis Lee how things went down, she previously told Essence that the director spotted her in the crowd at the screening and approached her, showing his interest through a series of questions.
She said, “We walked past each other. Spike circled back around and proceeded to give me the third degree. [He asked,] ‘Are you an actress? A model? A singer? Who are you here with? What do you do? Do you have a boyfriend?'” Shortly after their first encounter, the filmmaker and lawyer were photographed at Spike Lee’s ‘Malcolm X‘ movie premiere in November 1992.
The couple ended up marrying just a year after first meeting, on October 2, 1993, in a church in New York City. The couple share two children, daughter Satchel Lee, 29 who’s come out as the first openly queer ambassador for the Golden Globes, and son Jackson Lee, 23.
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