Jen Psaki’s and Gregory Mecher first met in 2006 before marrying in 2010

Jen Psaki and Gregory Mecher at the Paramount White House Correspondents’ Dinner afterparty in 2022.Credit : Mary Kouw/CBS/Getty

Jen Psaki and husband Gregory Mecher’s love story started with politics.

Psaki, the former White House Press Secretary and host of MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki, and Mecher, a political aide, first met in 2006 while both serving as staffers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The couple married in May 2010 and have two children together. Psaki told The Cut in 2022, “I have a three and a six year old who — we’re probably enabling them — come into our room in the middle of the night and get into sleeping bags. When I wake up, they’re awake. That’s the best quality time. Before most of the world is awake I can build Legos like I did with my daughter this morning.”

Here’s everything to know about Jen Psaki’s husband, Gregory Mecher.

He’s from Ohio

Jen Psaki at a White House press briefing in 2021.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty

Mecher was born in Delhi, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. In an interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer, he shared that he was born in Delhi Township and graduated from Elder High School in 2004.

“I don’t know what the most surprising thing is,” Mecher said. “I’ve had these crazy experiences I never thought I’d have. I’m just a kid who grew up in Delhi.”

At the time of their marriage in 2010, Mecher’s parents lived in Cincinnati. His mother, Mary Ann Mecher, worked as a fourth grade teacher. His father, Michael Mecher, is a retired mechanical engineer, according to The New York Times.

And he supports Cincinatti’s sports teams. “He’s a fanatic Bengals and Reds fan,” Psaki told The Cincinnati Enquirer of her husband, who has tweeted his support of the Bengals on his X (formerly Twitter) account.

He attended Northern Kentucky University

Mecher graduated from Northern Kentucky University in 1999 with a degree in communications/television production, per an interview with the school. He joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and was elected student body president during his senior year, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. He was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumnus by the school in 2010.

He met Psaki in 2006

Mecher met Psaki in 2006 while they were both staffers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. They met at an event in Philadelphia that Psaki was organizing and Mecher was traveling to with Rahm Emanuel. Mecher and Emanuel got lost along the way, but eventually made it.

“Years later and being married to her, I can say this is definitely not one of my wife’s strong points, directions,” Mecher said. “By the time I got there, I was wondering who the heck this person was.”

He married Psaki in 2010

Joe Biden, Jen Psaki and Gregory Mecher at the 74th National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation in 2021.Shutterstock

The couple got married in May 2010 at Woodlawn Farm in Maryland, per The New York Times. Their ceremony was officiated by a minister of the United Church of Christ, Rev. Dr. David D. Young.

He’s a political aide

Mecher also has a career based around politics like Psaki. His experience as student body president got him interested in politics.

“I came to find politics interesting,” Mecher told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “I didn’t grow up in any sort of political family by any means. My experience in college really brought me that way.”

This led to an internship after graduating college with Democratic U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas. Since then, Mecher served as chief of staff for Representative Steve Driehaus, Democrat of Ohio, according to The New York Times. He also served as chief of staff for Joe Kennedy III, from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, according to Northern Kentucky University.

He started his career in politics while attending Northern Kentucky University.

“While I was still in school I served as the student representative to the Board of Regents where I met another regent, Alice Sparks, who graciously helped me get an internship in the office of former Congressman Ken Lucas,” he told the school. “After that experience, I decided to seek employment on Capitol Hill which luckily, I managed to do. I have been here ever since.”

He and Psaki have two children

Jen Psaki and her child.Jen Psaki Instagram

Mecher and Psaki have two children: daughter Genevieve and son Matthew. Although not much has been publicly shared about them, Psaki’s X bio reads she is “Mom of 2.”

Psaki shared in May 2022 that her children were a big reason why she left her role at the White House.

“I’m leaving because I have a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old. They’re the most important people in my life. And my husband, of course, and I always knew that having worked in the White House before, that this was not a job I could do forever,” Psaki told Fox News’ Howie Kurtz on Media Buzz at the time.

“It is a huge honor to do it, no matter where you are in your life,” she added. “But I don’t want to miss things with my kids and I don’t want to miss moments or soccer practices or ballet recitals or anything.”

In June 2023, Psaki shared a photo on Instagram of herself and one of her children dressed in Taylor Swift shirts that read, “NOT A LOT GOING ON AT THE MOMENT,” and posing next to a cardboard cut-out of the superstar.

He impressed her by being “comfortable in his own skin”

Psaki told The Cincinnati Enquirer that what attracted her to Mecher was his sense of ease.

“He is so comfortable in his own skin with who he is,” she explained. “He could be in a room with 5-year-old kids, he could be in a room with billionaires, he could be in a room on a factory floor, and he would be comfortable everywhere and have a conversation everywhere.”

He encouraged Psaki to become press secretary

Jen Psaki in 2022.Pool/ABACA/Shutterstock

Mecher was fully onboard with Psaki taking the role of press secretary.

“He was the first to say, of course, you should have the conversation, of course, you should go for it,” Psaki told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “This is an exciting opportunity.”

And he commended her once she did. “I think she’s brought a professionalism, thoughtfulness and intelligence to the job that people have responded to quite well,” Mecher told the newspaper. “And I hear about it every day from people how great they think she’s doing, and how much it has brought a calm to a lot of people and stability back to the government.”

Her marriage to Mecher is also another reason Psaki left her role at the White House. “And also I love my husband, and he’s amazing, and I still want him to be married to me when I leave this place,” she told Vogue in 2021.