You may know this Power Couple from Atlanta’s AM1100 Toni and “Griff” show. If you’re not familiar, picture Howard Stern, the Honeymooner’s, and a sprinkle of Peg & Al Bundy all wrapped up in one. The Toni and “GRIFF” Show” has graced the internet and virtual radio world since 2010 and has gained over 70,000 fans and now a Facebook reach of over 900,000 listeners and viewers within the past 2 years. Presently they air on “1100AM Sports and Entertainment” station in the Metro Atlanta Area, M-F 10AM to 12PM EST AM1100.
Let me start by saying that this couple is downright hilarious! It was a challenge to get through the laughing just long enough to ask the next question. They truly were a joy to speak with and 110% made for each other. They have one big, happy blended family of seven (three boys, two girls) and will be celebrating six years of marriage in September.
Toni: Ok so…I stalked him. Well I didn’t purposely or knowingly stalk him [laughs]. I worked at a car dealership as a personal assistant. Griff was on V103 at the time and I told my boss that she should ‘give that dude an endorsement’. When she asked me why, I just told her I thought he’d be cool. I listened to him every day and he sounded so sincere about whatever he was talking about. So it was a way for me to be able to talk to him.
Griff: From the stalker to the altar! [All laugh]
BMWK: So we’ve shared a few different marriage proposal stories on the site recently. What’s your story?
Griff: I took Toni for her first trip to Miami for her birthday which is in October. We went to the beach and it was drizzling a bit, but it was cool because they had these romantic canopies out. So I sat her down and got to pacing and she says, ‘Now wait a minute, if you’re about to tell me that you’ve got AIDS or HIV, I’m already pregnant so I ain’t going nowhere’. I was like, ‘What the heck are you talking about Toni?!. She was trying to figure out why I was crying and pacing back and forth. [laughs]
Toni: I always tell Griff he’s my birthday present because he moved to Atlanta on my birthday. We’d known each other for 10 years but we only seriously dated each other for two years.
BMWK: It’s always great to hear about the dynamic of a working relationship and how you make it work. It sounds like you both have great chemistry. So it doesn’t sound like you have enough time to get on each other’s nerves [laughs]. How do you make it work in your marriage?
Toni: Oh we do [get on each other’s nerves]. First of all we got married mature. Of course I was more mature. And I’m in the army so everything is about my time. I don’t have too long to be mad. But with getting on each other’s nerves, we usually give it time and try to figure out what it is that we’re really upset about. Sometimes it’s about something else that went on in the day. But that took being willing not to run away from fights.
We respect each other a lot and we have fun. We have great chemistry. We’re so silly we always want to get back to the fun. We don’t want to waste time not laughing or smiling. Even with the kids: they’ll get a whooping and then we’ll get right back to laughing.
BMWK: What do you like to do for date night?
Griff: Well now we have some really cool privileges that we pay for and work for. So we like save ours and one day just decide to go to London out of the blue and just not eat cause it’s so expensive [laughs]. There’s also a bed and breakfast that we really like in Chattanooga. But if she needs love, I don’t have to put a night on it.
Toni: We do a lot of spontaneous things, everything is not planned. We love adventures. That’s the thing about us is that we do crazy stuff [laughs]. One time we went to Seattle and stayed at probably one of the best hotels there and didn’t have any money.
One of the things I love about being married to Griff is that we don’t fit in a box. That’s one of the things about doing the show that I just want people to know about love: it’s what you decide it is, and it doesn’t have to fit in a box. I’m not a Hallmark person. Just like the movie ends after the credits, you don’t know what problems [the people playing] those characters go back to.
BMWK: What has been your biggest hurdle in your marriage?
Toni: Being a blended family was really one of the hardest things. With my oldest two boys from Griff’s first marriage, their mom is white and they lived a different type of life before they came to live in Atlanta with us. Then my son was in that awkward age of ‘you’re not my daddy’, then we had a 4 year old girl at the time who now had to blend in with all these boys. And then we had a baby together so everybody had to embrace that baby.
Griff: The baby was the most important because she can’t take care of herself so all of y’all shut up [laughs].
Toni: Honestly, for the very first time that we decided to reconnect with each other and decided to go on a date (I was a single mom of two and he was divorced with his sons), we went on a family date. We wanted everybody to kind of feel one another out. We went into it with open eyes about parenting. When we became serious, he told his boys he didn’t want to ever hear them tell me that I wasn’t their mom. And he told my son that he didn’t want to hear that because he wasn’t trying to be his dad but that we were parents.
One of the things we try not to do is let our kids see us get upset in each other’s face. We try to go behind closed doors when we have an issue to discuss, so we always try to make a front. It’s hard raising teenagers so we realized that sticking together makes it easier and reminds us that it’s about the kids and not always about us.
BMWK: How do you talk to your kids about bigger issues, especially most recently, the Trayvon Murder case?
Griff: Now we’re going to do you one better [calls for their 14 year-old daughter, Justice]. Justice is going to drop your jaw at how smart and intelligent she is but that’s how all of our kids are so don’t be all shocked and amazed. [To Justice:] And if you don’t then we’re going to laugh [laughs].
Justice: They aren’t holding back or trying to tiptoe around the subject. They talk about it in a way that’s honest but in a way where we’ll understand it. So they put it in a way where we are all encouraged to speak about it and share our input.
I personally don’t think it’s fair but I kind of knew he was going to go free anyway. So I had prepared myself for acting all extra about it [laughs] I think that our justice system is a little broken right now.
I was sad a year ago for Trayvon’s family and what happened. But I also trust and tell my kids to trust in what God is going to do. Being mad at someone is giving them power over you.
We have a very open relationship with our children and encourage them to come to us for anything. We have a running joke in the house that all roads lead to teen pregnancy.
Griff: Oh yes, make sure you feed the fish. Feeding the fish will make you pregnant according to mom [laughs]. We love that they can joke about it but best believe it’s understood that you can take it how you need to hear it, but remember what she was saying.
BMWK: What kind of legacy do you want to leave for your children?
Griff: Well they already know. Justice just said last week she will probably go to the University of Michigan because I’ll look real cool in alumni Michigan polo. I’m a diehard Michigan fan. But she understands the power of saying it. It’s the same with Toni: everything she says she’s going to do, she does.
Toni: With the legacy thing, now that our kids are growing up, I’m so proud that they’re not afraid to leave. They’re not afraid to leave Atlanta, they’re not afraid to leave the country. That’s the thing that I’m praying to God that the faith that I have for them is way bigger. They’re growing up and they take care of each other. We have three boys in the military [one that’s almost 20 in the Air Force and two in the Army, 22 and almost 20] so they call and check in and when they’re home they take care of their sisters.
I was the only child until I was 14 so I never really understood what it meant to have sisters and brothers. I want our brand and our imaging for them to be able to run whatever we have. Just like Bill Gates makes their kids work. I want to have something for them to work for, knowing that hard work will pay off.
Griff: I would love the readers to know that the Toni and Griff show just hit 4 years. What’s about to happen to us in the future is not going to be luck or happen overnight. We put in WORK! We sacrifice. We just got back from South Africa.
Toni: Griff’s brand in Africa is really huge and we went because he taped Comedy Central for Africa. He’s working on a cartoon called, My Child for Cartoon Network in Africa. So hopefully in the next couple of months I’ll be retiring from almost 20 years of service in the military.
Griff: It was a real pleasure to become the first American. They could’ve asked anybody but they asked me first. But that is from five years of going over there and jumping on their TV and really gaining their respect. My mom always said that not traveling is like reading only one page out of a book.
You can check out more from Toni and Griff by visiting their website, Facebook page and on Twitter.
BMWK: What encouraging words do you want to share with this power couple? Be sure to leave them in the comment section!