Today Correspondent Emilie Ikeda Stuns Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer With Surprise Pregnancy Reveal Live on Air

Emilie Ikeda managed to keep a major secret from her Today colleagues for months — right up until she revealed live on television that she is five months pregnant and expecting her first baby in January.

The 32-year-old NBC News correspondent delivered the surprise during the 3rd Hour of Today on Monday, August 31, while filling in alongside Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer. Rather than making a formal announcement, Ikeda casually introduced a series of photographs from her weekend.

Then the ultrasound pictures appeared.

Melvin’s reaction was immediate as he realized what he was seeing: “Oh my God… you’re having a baby!”

Ikeda quickly confirmed that the shock on her colleagues’ faces was completely genuine. Neither Melvin nor Dreyer had been told what she was about to announce.

Emilie Ikeda Reveals She Is Five Months Pregnant

The moment began innocently enough as the hosts discussed how they had spent their weekends.

Ikeda told her colleagues that hers could probably be explained best through pictures.

Photos then appeared showing Ikeda and her husband, Pat, proudly holding ultrasound images — instantly revealing the news she had managed to keep quiet.

“For those at home, they legitimately don’t know,” Ikeda explained as Melvin and Dreyer processed the surprise. “I’m surprising them right now.”

Ikeda then shared more details: she is already five months into her pregnancy and is due in January.

She also jokingly compared the baby’s current size to a banana.

Melvin immediately embraced his colleague as the announcement turned into an emotional celebration on set.

Dylan Dreyer Realizes Ikeda Had Been Dropping Hints

Although Dreyer didn’t know Ikeda was pregnant, the correspondent revealed that she had actually been leaving at least one clue.

Ikeda has become a particularly dedicated listener to Dreyer’s Parent Chat podcast.

After announcing the pregnancy, she asked Dreyer whether her sudden enthusiasm for the parenting show made more sense now.

For Dreyer, it immediately did.

She admitted she had noticed Ikeda discussing recent episodes and had wondered why her colleague had become so invested in the podcast.

The seemingly random interest suddenly had an explanation: Ikeda had been quietly preparing for motherhood while keeping her pregnancy private from the people sitting beside her on television.

Ikeda Says Feeling Her Baby Kick Has Been “Miraculous”

Now well into her second trimester, Ikeda said she has reached one of the stages of pregnancy she finds particularly special — feeling her baby move.

She described those kicks as “miraculous,” explaining that they can instantly change her perspective during an otherwise ordinary or stressful moment.

Whether she’s distracted, frustrated or concentrating on a script, feeling the baby kick reminds her of the little companion she is carrying.

“Oh, it’s my buddy,” she said of those moments.

Her second trimester has also brought a welcome improvement in how she feels physically.

Her First Trimester Was Much More Difficult

While Ikeda was glowing as she shared the news on Today, she admitted the beginning of her pregnancy had been considerably harder.

She experienced significant nausea during her first trimester and described that period as “absolutely miserable.”

Now in her second trimester, however, she is feeling much better.

The improvement has allowed her to enjoy the pregnancy more, particularly as she can now feel her baby kicking.

For viewers watching the announcement, that also helped explain how Ikeda had managed to keep such a major personal development hidden while continuing her work as an NBC correspondent.

 

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Emilie and Pat Aren’t Finding Out the Baby’s Sex

Ikeda and her husband have made another major decision about the pregnancy: they don’t intend to learn whether they’re having a boy or girl before the birth.

They want to discover the baby’s sex at the same moment they meet their child.

Ikeda jokingly described herself and Pat as “a little psychotic” for resisting the temptation to find out ahead of time, but said the couple sees waiting until delivery as the ultimate surprise.

That means even as January approaches, one major part of their baby’s arrival will remain a mystery.

Craig Melvin Couldn’t Resist a Dad Joke

With Al Roker absent from the broadcast, Melvin decided the occasion needed a suitably corny joke.

After the show’s control room apparently spotted an opportunity involving Ikeda’s surname, Melvin delivered the line on air: Emilie Ikeda was about to have an “A-Kidda.”

It was an appropriately lighthearted ending to an announcement that had genuinely caught both hosts off guard.

The reveal worked precisely because Ikeda hadn’t secretly prepared her colleagues for the moment. Their stunned expressions weren’t staged reactions to news they already knew.

She had waited until the cameras were rolling to tell them.

A Surprise Announcement Months in the Making

Ikeda has been part of NBC News since 2021 and regularly appears across the network’s news programming, including Today. But Monday’s appearance gave viewers a rare personal moment from the correspondent.

Instead of reporting someone else’s story, she suddenly became the subject of one herself.

Five months into her pregnancy, Ikeda finally shared the news publicly with the same people she works alongside — revealing it through photographs rather than simply telling them what was happening.

For Melvin and Dreyer, the ultrasound images said everything before Ikeda had to.

Now, with her difficult first trimester behind her and her baby increasingly active, Ikeda is preparing for the next stage of the pregnancy.

She and Pat still don’t know whether they will welcome a son or daughter.

That surprise, unlike the one she delivered to her Today colleagues, is being saved until January.