S.A. couple invited to tell their love story on national TV
A San Antonio couple who shared their roundabout love story in the Express-news will now get to tell it on national TV — on Valentine’s Day.
The story of José and Claudia Elizondo, high school sweethearts who went their separate ways and found one another years later, was published online Wednesday and ran in Sunday’s S.A. Life section. After producers from the syndicated “Tamron Hall” TV show read it online last week, they invited the couple to New York City to appear on the daytime talk show.
The couple will appear on Wednesday’s episode of “Tamron Hall,” which airs in San Antonio at noon weekdays on KCWX-TV.
Hall was raised in Luling and worked as a TV journalist in several cities, including Fort Worth, Chicago and New York. She said she was touched by José and Claudia’s story in part because it reminded her of her relationship with her husband.
“We must have run into each other a dozen times over several years before we got together,” Hall said. “Whenever we did, we’d say, ‘What are the odds?’ When I read about José and Claudia’s story, I thought about the invisible strings that keep bringing us back to that one person. It’s just such a beautiful story.”
Claudia, now 52, and José, 55, dated throughout high school in Brownsville, breaking up after graduation when he joined the Army and she pursued a career in modeling. Over the years, they both got married and divorced and raised children of their own. Although they both eventually landed in San Antonio, they were in contact only sporadically. Still, they never forgot one another.
“My mind was always on her,” said José.
“I knew the kind of man that I wanted because of him,” Claudia said.
Through a series of fortunate events, they eventually found themselves visiting in Brownsville. When Claudia sent José a “what’s up” text, they met in a nearby bar. That’s when the spark reignited and they realized they were meant for one another.
Hall said she loves spotlighting such love stories on her show, now in its fifth season.
“I’m such a mush,” she said. “A hopeless romantic. I always root for love.”
In addition to the Elizondos, Wednesday’s lineup will include the Tiktok famous @coupledbythemiles who live on the road, celebrity chef Anne Burrell who’ll serve up her husband’s favorite Valentine’s dish and R&B musician Jon B who’ll perform his new single, “Waiting on You.”
José and Claudia say they’re overwhelmed by all the attention their story is getting.
“I was at work when the producers called to ask us to be on the show,” said Claudia, a facilities administrator for an aerospace engineering company. “I was in shock and one of my employees, who could hear them on the phone, was in tears.”
With Valentine’s Day marking the one-year anniversary of their engagement, they plan to stay in New York for several days after the show airs to celebrate.