For years, Kelley Louise Carter harbored a fantasy of meeting the love of her life. “We would be in Whole Foods and he would be wearing a Michigan State University alumni sweatshirt,” she said. “We’d both reach for the almond milk at the same time, then we’d look up, close our eyes, and that would be it.” We would exchange numbers and fall in love.”
Becoming the alternative dairy client of her dreams wasn’t something Moreno Quintell McCalpin could have easily pulled off when they met in 2021, given that he lived in Atlanta and she lived in Los Angeles. But becoming the man who helped her rethink what love at first sight might look like was easy for him.
Ms. Carter, 46, is a senior reporter covering Black Entertainment at ESPN’s Andscape operation. Mr. McCalpin, 42, is a freelance chemist and lab manager whose computer and TV screens are permanently on sports channels. When they connected on Twitter in February 2021, her face was as recognizable to him as the athletes and celebrities she regularly interviews. To her, he was a friendly stranger—one of thousands who followed her on social media, but one whose kindness provided a lift at a time when she really needed one.
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Mrs. Carter had caught the covid blues that winter. “We were in the thick of it,” she said. “They hadn’t even developed a vaccine yet.” She had recently purchased a home in Los Angeles, which left her unfamiliar with apartment living and the daily dealings with neighbors that came with it. “I was literally locked in the house alone. I didn’t even have a pet.”
On February 15, 2021, the third anniversary of the release of the movie ‘Black Panther’, she posted a photo of herself with the film’s star, Chadwick Boseman, on Twitter. “He had passed away a few months earlier and everyone was tweeting their memories,” she said. “I knew him well, so I tweeted a picture of Chad and myself and Ryan Coogler days before the film’s release.” Mr. McCalpin commented on the photo. “I would see that beautiful smile in a crowd anywhere,” he wrote.
The compliment felt like a balm. “It was nice to have someone flirt with you in a way that they might have flirted on the outside,” she said. Within minutes, she sent him a direct message. “Thank you so much for the tweet, that was really sweet,” she wrote.
Mr McCalpin, who said he always found Ms. Carter cute, had responded to previous posts she shared on social media, but this was her first time responding.
His answer sparked a romance that initially made him wonder if he was being catfished. “I thought, what does a person like her want with someone like me?” he said.
Mr. McCalpin grew up in Memphis. He and his younger sister, Ashley Prewitt, were raised by their great-grandmother, Marie Barnes. His mother, Renee McCalpin, was in rehab for addiction throughout his childhood until she died of a drug overdose in 1991. He never knew his father. Sport, he said, “was my outlet.”
Track and field and football earned him a scholarship to Arkansas State University, but friends suggested that he should consider black colleges and universities historically. He graduated from Lane College in Jackson, Tenn., in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and planned to enroll in pharmacy school soon after. But before he could enroll, Mrs. Barnes was diagnosed with leukemia. He was her full-time caregiver until she died a year later.
A first job as a lab technician in Memphis in 2006 set him on the path of consistent lab work. “I’ve been on that train ever since,” he said. He had been working in Atlanta for two years working night shifts at medical supply company Medline when Ms. Carter surprised him with her direct message.
Ms. Carter became an ESPN reporter in 2016 after what she said was “a pretty great childhood,” mostly in Southfield, Michigan. Her father, William Carter, was a recruiting coach who worked in colleges and high schools. Her mother, Carolyn Carter, taught English at several universities, including Eastern Michigan University.
Though an only child, her household was bustling with visits from her parents’ students and recruits. Among them was Kevin Willis, a former professional basketball player who went to Michigan State. “I call him my big brother,” she said. “He played for Michigan State, and because he went there, I became obsessed with Michigan State basketball. They also had a great journalism program.” Ms. Carter graduated in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree from that program. Her devotion to her alma mater showed through a sweatshirt in her love-at-Whole Foods fantasy.
Before Ms. Carter and Mr. McCalpin transitioned from non-stop direct messages to late-night phone calls eight days after their initial Twitter encounter, she had one word to describe her love life. “It was tragic,” she said with a laugh.
“I think a lot is said about women having great careers, and I think the most important thing is that we don’t create time for love in our lives,” she said. “That was just absolutely not the case for me. As much as I wanted to grow in my career, I wanted to grow in love. But I didn’t think so.”
The connection she felt with Mr. McCalpin on social media gave a first glimpse of it. “What captivated me is that his childhood story isn’t the greatest, but he went through that trauma and was still so kind and kind and introspective and full of life. I love that he takes care of people.”
For Mr. McCalpin, relationships in his 20s and 30s were “interesting,” he said. He had a long-term girlfriend. “But I was a job person. I was on the run from a lot of good women, I guess. His feet were firmly on the ground when Ms. Carter flew to Atlanta to meet him for a first date on May 15, 2021. She had friends and family in town. “My thought was, if he’s weird, I’m going to hang out with my friends,” she said. But that was not necessary.
On her first day there, they walked through the Atlanta Botanical Garden and got foot massages at Treat Your Feet Buckhead, which Mr. McCalpin arranged in advance. When he drove her back to her hotel that night, after dinner at Atlanta’s Capital Grille, “I think we were both like, okay, so how are we going to do this?” she said. “What does remote dating look like for you?”
By summer, they were flying across the country, seeing each other at least once a month. In June, they declared themselves a couple. Ms. Carter’s best friend of 30 years, the writer and producer Jemele Hill, felt a sense of relief when she saw Mr. McCalpin met on a trip to New York for the ESPY Awards.
“Kelley is the type of person who is exuberant about love,” Ms Hill said. “There were plenty of times I told her to slow down, take it easy, be a little more careful. But this was one case where I felt caution was unnecessary. Moreno understood Kelley. He was considerate.”
Less than a year later, Mr. McCalpin asked Mrs. Hill for advice on an engagement ring. The ring he presented on September 25, 2022 during a trip to Dreams Tulum, a resort in Mexico, was the ring of her dreams: a cushion cut diamond with baguettes on the band. Mrs. Carter tearfully said yes before Mr. McCalpin sent her to a surprise. Mrs. Hill and her husband and a group of other friends and family had traveled to Mexico to celebrate with them.
It rained from the rooftops at an engagement party at steakhouse BAK’ Tulum. “It was such a beautiful moment,” Ms. Carter said. Months later, Mr. McCalpin moved from Atlanta to Ms. Carter’s home in the View Park neighborhood of Los Angeles known as the Black Beverly Hills.
On July 14, Mrs. Carter and Mr. McCalpin got married at the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach, California. Their chosen theme for the wedding was vintage Hollywood Governor’s Ball. To set the tone, their 200 guests were asked to dress formally, in vintage Hollywood black tie. To Ms. Carter, the elegant elegance of the time felt like a way to pay homage to classic black actors and entertainers who never had mainstream success.
Guests cheered and wiped away tears as Ms. Carter, in a custom off-the-shoulder, champagne-colored gown by Katerina Bocci, was escorted down a winding aisle by her father. Mr. McCalpin, in a black tuxedo and white vest, met her at an altar covered in white flowers where Rodney Patterson, a minister from Chicago’s Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, was waiting for them. On either side of the official was a wedding party that included actors Gabrielle Union and Deborah Joy Winans; Mrs. Hill was a matron of honour.
After a short, traditional ceremony in which Chanté Moore, a singer and songwriter, surprised guests with a performance of her song “Love’s Taken Over,” Ms. Carter and Mr. McCalpin returned to a room crowded with athletes and entertainers. But the spotlight was all theirs. “At that point, Kelley and Moreno were the only stars,” Ms Hill said.
On this day
When July 14, 2023
Where The Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa, Huntington Beach, California.
Wedding white to reception black At a reception at the Hyatt, guests were served a duet of seared salmon and cider-lavender pickled chicken before a four-foot-tall black wedding cake adorned with pearly treats and lace. Mrs. Carter changed from her wedding dress to a crystal-studded, off-white gown.
Old school glamour After a late night snack of specialty pizza, the couple gave each of their guests a coffee table book, “Black Hollywood: Reimagining Iconic Movie Moments.” In the books, the couple had a picture of themselves bound on the first page. Mrs. Carter wrote a personal thank you note in each copy.
