Mika Brzezinski revealed that working on Morning Joe alongside her husband, Joe Scarborough, has taught her many valuable lessons over the years.
“Both of us practice a lot of patience and acceptance, and whether you’re together 24/7 or not, that’s key,” she told Woman’s World in a recent interview, where she reflected on her career, marriage and more. “Otherwise I’m incredibly blessed and lucky.”
“It’s very hard, and I talk to young women about this, but we have so many opportunities, so please don’t forget the most important one in your life,” she added. “It can be to have a career and be successful and support your family and yourself. It’s important to do that.”
Mika, 57, and Joe, 61, have been working together on Morning Joe since 2007. They got married in a private ceremony in 2018 at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The pair both have children from their previous marriages.
From her previous marriage to Jim Hoffer, she is a mom to daughters Emilie and Carlie, while Joe shares kids Joey and Andrew with first ex-wife Melanie Hinton and kids Kate and Jack with second ex-wife Susan Waren.
“If your dreams are to have a family — and you don’t have to have those dreams — know that it’s OK to be spending a lot of time and effort on a good connection. If this is something that you want, it can be hard to find, but it can happen and you have much more time than you think,” Mika told the outlet. “And remember to take love seriously.”
It’s not the first time one of the MSNBC hosts has dished on their marriage and making things work despite their high-pressure jobs. Prior to their nuptials, Joe said that he and Mika “still fight a lot” but were learning to work through their differences.
“For me, the mistake always was I’m very driven at work, but I go home and I don’t want to fight. I’m passive aggressive. I’m sort of like, ‘Whatever you want to do,’” the former politician told People in August 2017. “That’s really what I think hurt me in one relationship after another. And differences grow over a decade and things ultimately blow up. With Mika and me, we both learn you have to. If there’s a problem, put it on the table immediately. If it gets ugly, it gets ugly. You go there and you fight through it.”
Joe said that he and Mika always make it a point to solve their arguments before they have to go on-air for Morning Joe throughout the week.
“I’ll tell you, the blessing for us is, we always knew we had to take care of things by 6 a.m. the next morning,” he explained. “So we couldn’t go to sleep mad at each other, because Mika has the worst poker face in the history of television. She wears everything on her sleeve. I know if she goes on the air angry with me that everybody’s going to know.”
