Jordin Sparks said “I do” to Dana Isaiah back in 2017, but she knew she would say those words to him a long time before that.
During a Monday morning video visit to TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, the 30-year-old opened up about their love story and about the moment she realized she would spend her life with the man who eventually became her husband.
“We just connected on a deep platonic level when we first started talking,” Sparks recalled of their remote introduction. “We weren’t even interested in looking for a relationship, so we had made that clear to each other.”
So what changed that? Their first in-person meeting.
“He came to LA and I was like, let’s meet up,” she continued.
But what the singer, songwriter and actor imagined would just be a quick chat filled with dining recs and small talk turned into something else altogether when the fitness model knocked on her door.
“When I opened my door, I looked at him and I went … (gasp!) … ‘Oh, no!’” Sparks said.
In other words, their platonic plans suddenly changed.
“I knew (love at first sight) was possible, but I didn’t think it was going to happen to me,” she laughed. “But that was literally what it was. I knew the second day that we hung out, that that was the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with. He didn’t know that, and I didn’t tell him that, but I knew.”
And she was right, but she didn’t predict who else would be part of her life from now on — Dana Jr., better known as DJ, the son that they welcomed to the world less than a year after they wed.
“It’s been absolutely incredible, actually,” Sparks said when asked about motherhood. “I love it. DJ is just the cutest thing.”
And at 2 years old, DJ has proved himself to be good company during quarantine.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” mom raved. “He’s so much fun. Right now, during this time, he’s learning so much. We’re having full conversations. He’s got full sentences. He knows how to explain himself. I’m just sitting back like, ‘You’ve been here before, haven’t you?’”
Sparks also had some words of wisdom to share about another young person — her 17-year-old self.
Back in 2007, she became the youngest winner in the history of “American Idol,” and thinking of that innocent teen now, she had some advice for her former self.
“I’m still 100 percent that girl to my core,” Sparks assured. “I’m still that bubbly 17-year-old that walked into the room. But I would tell her definitely to not sweat the small stuff. And that if something doesn’t affect you, that you’re not feeling some type of way about something within five minutes to an hour, then it’s probably not worth your energy.”
After all, it didn’t even take Isaiah five minutes to affect her when he knocked at her door.