Coleman Domingo's romance with his husband, Raúl Aktanov Domingo, is truly a twist of fate!
On Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show, the Color Purple actor revealed that their romance started with a Craigslist missed connections ad.
Domingo shared the story with Norton, Sterling K. Brown, Dakota Johnson and Domhnall Gleeson, which began when he was walking into a Walgreens drug store in Berkley, California, in search of a face mask.
"I'm walking in and I see someone walking out," Domingo recalled. "Has beautiful hair down to here, lip piercing, beautiful, beautiful. 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 and he's talking to this young woman and she seems to be angry about something."
Domingo said that he and the mystery man continued to lock eyes as they crossed paths. However, after trying to get his attention, the beautiful man and his friend walked away. That's when Domingo said he walked into a Blockbuster, and looked at this watch to see that it was "8:03."
"I thought, maybe I'll come back next Sunday and he'll be here. I'm that kind of hopeless romantic," he said of his missed encounter.
In the pre-internet dating days, Domingo decided to do what he thought would be the best bet to help him find his love. The missed connections section of Craigslist.
"Cut to three days later, I'm trying to buy a used computer and I was just scanning Craigslist, so I thought, 'Maybe I'll post one of those missed connections ad, I wonder if they work.' I go to page two of them, as I'm reading I see, 'Saw you outside of Walgreens...Berkley.' He placed an ad for me two hours before."
Domingo explained that he was sure it was him, because the description included his faux hawk haircut.
After meeting, their love story would go on to become one for the books.
"So we met up, three days later we had our first date," he shared. "I was trying to be a good boy and go home. He said, 'Can you stay over?' I said, 'Sure but let's just cuddle,' We cuddled, I thought he was sleep. 4 o'clock in the morning, I said, 'I think I love you, and you're about to change my life.' And we've been together almost 19 years now."
Domingo's love story left everyone onstage-- and in the audience -- in awe.
"You are like the most magical creature on the planet," Johnson said.
According to the Rustin star, it's all because he believes in magic.
"I think I'm somebody who really believes that magic happens," he said. "I really do believe that so I feel like, 'Oh, if I want this thing, it will happen.'"
Domingo and Aktanov have been married since 2014. In 2021, the pair told the story during an interview with GQ, where they revealed that they had their first date in San Francisco and went on to move to Alaska together, while Domingo worked on his acting career. Nine years after their encounter, they were married during an intimate (surprise) wedding ceremony.
Domingo shared that the imperfect connection and the years they spent building their careers together all add to their story.
"It is magical," Domingo shared with the magazine. "The imperfections or the off-roading and things like that. It's supposed to be like this. You never know what you're supposed to get."
RELATED CONTENT:
