The Truth About Michele Tafoya's Husband, Mark Vandersall
Michele Tafoya is one of NBC Sports' most familiar faces. The star has quite the impressive career as a sportscaster too, appearing on the peacock network since 2011 and landing the prestigious gig on the sidelines of the football field for the hugely popular "Sunday Night Football." The star has also appeared on several other networks' sports coverage over the years, including CBS Sports in the 1990s, while she's also popped up on the likes of huge shows on ABC Sports and ESPN where she's mainly utilized her skills as a sideline reporter.
But one thing Tafoya isn't really known for is for having her name constantly highlighted in the gossip columns, which has fans often speculating about her personal life as much as the fact she also doesn't have much of a public presence on social media.
But while the star's name may not be uttered in the same breath as we keep up with the Kardashians here at Nicki Swift, we do know a few things about what's going on with this sports news star's personal life, including her husband, Mark Vandersall. But who is he exactly?
Mark Vandersall's job
Sports clearly runs in the family in the Tafoya-Vandersall household, as Michele Tafoya's husband, Mark Vandersall, seems just as into sports as she is. Vandersall attended the University of Minnesota from 1990 until 1995 to study finance, but lists being a "baseball team member" under his activities and societies on his LinkedIn account. His Twitter page also confirms he's a big fan of the University of Minnesota's Golden Gophers football team, even sharing snaps of himself traveling to the games while his profile picture is the team's logo.
But his passion for sports didn't make its way into his career like it did for his wife. Instead, Vandersall used his degree in finance to take him far and land him a very cushy job he clearly loves. Vandersall has been working as a Private Wealth Advisor at Ameriprise Financial Services since 1995, the same year he left college.
It was five years after he said goodbye to college life that he married Tafoya, as the two tied the knot in 2000. They've kept much of their marriage and life together pretty private though, as Tafoya seems to shy away from social media. Vandersall does have a public Twitter though, where he occasionally gives updates on his life behind closed doors with his wife. Though Tafoya doesn't regularly appear on her husband's account, he did share this adorable photo from a family vacation to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016.
Which leads us onto our next question...
Do Michele Tafoya and Mark Vandersall have children?
Michele Tafoya and Mark Vandersall have two kids. The couple welcomed their son, Tyler Vandersall, in 2005 and adopted their daughter, Olivia Vandersall, in 2009. Tafoya has been very vocal about her and Vandersall's struggle to become parents too, opening up about their difficult fertility journey as they experienced multiple miscarriages before welcoming Tyler.
"I had the first miscarriage and I thought, 'OK, I hear everyone has one now and then.' After the second one, I remember apologizing to my husband, because I felt responsible. I'm seven years older than he is, so I felt like my age was a factor. And it was — the science will tell you. There are biological reasons for it, and it's as simple as that," she told Artful Living in 2018.
They then turned to IVF which turned into twins, but, sadly, she "lost those" too. They then tried donor eggs, after which they fell pregnant with Tyler. Shortly after that, they made the decision to adopt Olivia from Colombia. "That was a two-and-a-half-year odyssey, but Olivia was worth every minute of the wait," she said, while her husband has shared looks at their quality time (including a trip to his alma mater) on Twitter.
As for why Tafoya's been so open, she explained she wanted those experiencing similar issues to know that there's "always hope" even in the most difficult of times. "There's always a way to build a family. Always," she added.