Former NPR Host Diane Rehm Is Newlywed At 81

Diane Rehm w/John Hagedon

81-year-old broadcasting legend Diane Rehm married this past Saturday.

According to The Orlando Sentinel, she reconnected in 2016 with John Hagedorn of Lake Worth, FL at an event sponsored by non-com WMFE 90.7 FM in Orlando.

He wrote to praise her memoir, “On My Own,” about being a widow, and offered to meet her if she visited Florida.

She invited him to “An Evening with Diane Rehm” event in Orlando. They talked at the meet-and-greet before the show.

Rehm retired in December, and “The Diane Rehm Show” ended. But her listeners still have a great fondness for her, because she was classy, smart and thoughtful. These are qualities to cherish these days.

She provided an update on her blog:

“So the newest chapter of my life is about to begin. On Saturday, October 14th, I will be married to John Hagedorn, a retired Lutheran pastor who lives in Lake Worth, Florida. This is something I never thought would happen to me, after a 54-year marriage, and losing my beloved husband, John Rehm, in June of 2014. I truly believed I would spend the rest of my life alone, and find a way to enjoy it. 

“But things happen. One day, when I was on book tour in Orlando, Florida, I re-connected with a man I’d met nearly 30 years ago, through mutual friends. I remembered only his name but nothing else about him. He had lost his beloved wife of 25 years five years previously. 

“All I can tell you is: our eyes connected, and something happened. This was all at the start of 2016. And now, dear friends, we are going to be married.”

Diane Rehm and John Hagedorn were married Saturday at Washington National Cathedral in front of their families and 250 friends. The bride, 81, walked down the aisle with her son and daughter. The groom, 78, waited for her with his two sons.