Colman Domingo and his husband, Raúl Domingo (née Aktanov), have Craiglist to thank for their “missed connection” meet-cute.
In a recent interview, the Euphoria star, 54, shared that he and his now-husband met in Berkeley, California, in 2005 outside of a Walgreens. “I’m walking in and I see someone walking out, has beautiful hair down to here, lip piercing. Beautiful, beautiful,” Colman said on The Graham Norton Show on Friday, February 2. “I see this guy and we look at each other, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God.’ I’m on the phone and I come outside and we look at each other. He’s talking to this young woman and she seems to be angry about something.”
Colman said that even when Raúl and the woman began to walk away, Raúl continued to look back at him. “And I wave, but he just keeps going. I’m just dumbfounded,” the Fear the Walking Dead alum continued. As it was 2005, Colman then found himself inside of a nearby Blockbuster video store.
“I don’t even know what I’m doing,” he recalled. “I decide to look at my watch and it was 8:03. And I came back outside and I thought, ‘Is he here?’ I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll come back next Sunday and he’ll be here.’ I’m that kind of hopeless romantic.”
According to the Emmy winner, he didn’t have to wait long for this particular love story to unfold. It was only three days later that Colman was on Craigslist looking to buy a used computer and decided he might place a “missed connections” ad for the “beautiful” Walgreens stranger.
“I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll place one of those missed connections ads. I wonder if they work,’” he said, adding that he would often read them on the subway. “I go to page 2 of them as I’m reading and I see, ‘Saw you outside of Walgreens. Berkeley.’ He placed an ad for me two hours before.”
He said, “I jumped up. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? That’s me.’ He described me with my faux hawk — it was 2005.” The couple had their first date three days later and, per Colman, spent the night together.
“I was trying to be a good boy and go home. He said, ‘Can you stay over?’ And I said, ‘Sure, but let’s just cuddle,’” he said. “I thought he was asleep. It was 4 a.m., I couldn’t sleep. I said, ‘I think I love you and you’re about to change my life.’ And we’ve been together for almost 19 years now.”
Colman and Raúl officially tied the knot in 2014.
