Podcaster, comedian, journalist, reality star, and ex-speechwriter Jon Lovett and his longtime boyfriend Ari Schwartz are now married. According to PEOPLE, the couple tied the knot in Santa Barbara, California, on May 23.
Guests have shared images from the intimate ceremony on social media. These include a roast of the pair, a variety show during the rehearsal dinner, and their first dance as newlyweds at the reception. Both Lovett and Schwartz reshared the photographs and videos on their Instagram Stories.
The wedding came 15 months after their engagement announcement. Back then, the joint post showed a picture of the duo sitting on an outdoor staircase with Jon Lovett’s pet Pundit.
“Exciting news: I got a dog. This dog. Because we got engaged,” Schwartz wrote in the caption.
Ariella “Ari” Schwartz is the Chief of Staff at Crooked Media, an entertainment company founded and co-owned by Jon Lovett.
PEOPLE reports that the couple hard-launched their romance on Instagram in September 2024 with their cosy images from the Minnesota State Fair.
“State fair (not pictured: Lactaid),” Schwartz captioned the post back then.
All you need to know about Jon Lovett’s husband
Ari Schwartz was born and raised in St Louis Park, Minnesota, where he attended the local high school. He moved to New York to attend NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, from where he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film and television.
Schwartz joined Crooked Media in 2021 as a programming and production coordinator. He soon became a manager and was later promoted to senior manager. In April 2023, Ari became the company’s chief of staff. Last month, he also took up the additional role of strategic advisor.
Before joining her husband’s company, Ari Schwartz worked for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional campaign for two years in varied roles of organizer, coordinator, and event manager.
Jon Lovett’s husband worked as a freelance production assistant in Hollywood between 2018 and 2020, including for the Irony Point feature project ‘Scare Me’ and the Netflix production of ‘Tigertail.’ During his college days, Ari was also an intern at notable companies such as Comedy Central (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah), Red Hour Films, CBS Corporation (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee).
His LinkedIn bio reads:
“Helping purpose-driven media punch above its weight.”
Ari Schwartz, who is now based in Los Angeles, California, adds in the About section:
“Content strategy and operations lead with five years at a top independent podcast network, bringing an editorial eye, a head for numbers, and a record of getting complicated projects across the finish line.”
He was among OUT Magazine’s 100 honorees in 2024.
Following their engagement last year, the Pod Save America host told the publication about his love story with Ari Schwartz:
“We met at work and were friends for a long time, before we realized there might be more to it. We just liked the same dumb jokes, and then we fell in love.”
About their engagement, Jon Lovett explained:
“It was planned by both of us, down to the minute, with absolutely zero surprise elements, which is, for a certain kind of type A person, deeply romantic. But what that really means is we decided well before.”
Schwartz added:
“And the truth is, it was Jon being gone for Survivor that made both of us realize that there was no reason to wait.”
At the time, the pair noted that for “gays and theys,” big weddings are “acts of resistance.” So, even if they promised to have a “small and intimate” wedding with close friends and family, they weren’t sure to live up to it.
Jon Lovett was previously in a relationship with investigative journalist and author Ronan Farrow. The news of their engagement came to the forefront in October 2019 after the latter released his book, Catch and Kill, where Farrow wrote about his proposal to Lovett after eight years together.
Unfortunately, they went their separate ways in March 2023, with Jon Lovett announcing on his Lovett or Leave It podcast that he was single after more than a decade.
Two years later, the Survivor alum announced his engagement to Ari Schwartz in the same podcast:
“And, finally, I have some personal news. I got engaged… several years ago, and it didn’t work out. And then I got engaged again! After four decades on this earth, someone finally chose not to Leave It. I’ve been doing this show for 8 years now. While the show has changed a lot, and I’ve changed a lot, so much of what you see of me here is pretty consistent: the ups and downs of the news, and the ups and downs of my life.”
The former Obama staffer continued:
“I fell in love while the world fell apart. And I don’t know what the future holds, but you’ll be pleased to know that as happy as I am — and I only realize now truly happy, maybe for the first time in my life — I’m as motivated by rage as ever.”
Jon Lovett also explained that Ari Schwartz is trans and while he was often angry about the way society treated the trans community, he was glad to be in the company of the “funniest and kindest human being” and a section of the world that celebrated difference and found beauty in it.
The podcaster also shared that their wedding reception would be in L.A. and their honeymoon in Guantanamo.
Edited by Pallavi K