In November of 2020, President Biden announced that his White House Communications Team would be entirely made up of women. One of these women is White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki. When then 42-year-old Psaki took the podium for the first time in her new role, she was widely praised for her approach to the high-pressure job. Since then, we’ve become more curious about her personal life. Who is Jen Psaki’s husband, Gregory Mecher, and how did this political powerhouse couple come to be?
Who Is Greg Mecher?
Though Jen Psaki is now a household name thanks to her job as White House Press Secretary, her husband, Gregory Mecher, has had a similar career in politics.
While Mecher got his bachelor’s degree in communications and television production in 1999, he was still in college when he first dipped his toes into politics. While he was attending Northern Kentucky University, he was the “student representative to the Board of Regents.” A classmate from the Board of Regents scored him an internship from 1999 to 2005 with Congressman Ken Lucas who represented Kentucky’s 4th district. According to Mecher, this internship made it clear to him that he was destined for politics.
By the time he and Psaki tied the knot, Mecher was the chief of staff for Ohio Democratic Representative, Steve Driehaus. Mecher has also served as Chief of Staff for Congressman Joe Kennedy III from Massachusetts.
Jen Psaki Married Greg Mecher In 2006
Psaki and Mecher first met while working at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee together in 2006. Psaki was hired in the communications department while Mecher was a deputy finance director.
The pair’s first interaction was over the phone. Psaki who, in her words, has “no sense of direction” gave Mecher the wrong directions to a work event. Psaki was worried that her group of coworkers would be angry about the mixup. According to Mecher, however, he was struck with a little love at first sight and forgot about the whole thing the moment he laid eyes on her.
In September 2006, Mecher finally worked up the courage to ask her out to dinner. The two hit it off and were together from then on. However, just a few months later in early 2007, Psaki made a major career move that tested their relationship: she began working for the Obama presidential campaign and had to move to Chicago.
For the year and a half that followed, Psaki and Mecher were in a difficult long-distance relationship. Because Psaki was so busy and always traveling, the pair could often only communicate via late-night phone calls. As is to be expected, this took a toll on their relationship. According to Mecher, “The longest we went without seeing each other was 36 days. And I counted. And it was long. And it was hard.” Even so, neither of them ever considered breaking up.
Once the 2008 election was over, Psaki and Mecher moved in together. Just a few months later, Mecher proposed. In May 2010, the pair made things official and tied the knot on a farm in Maryland.
They Have Two Children Together
The COVID-19 pandemic certainly had an effect on employment—especially for working mothers. Since the pandemic caused the number of women in the workforce to drop to 57 percent, Psaki and the Biden Administration felt it was important for Americans to see working mothers in power roles. Psaki and Mecher are proud parents to a six-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son.
Psaki agrees that her very public role as a working mom is representation that matters. She told POPSUGAR, “I would say one of the biggest contributions we can all make is showing other women who may be at the stage where they haven’t yet had kids, or they’re contemplating it, that this is possible. That it is not because you’re talking about it every day — although that is certainly part of the conversation — but because we are making it feel like you don’t have to choose.”
Psaki can really do it all, and luckily, she has a perfect partner in her husband. Talk about a power couple!