Seth Meyers Is a Sweetheart and His Wife, Alexi Ashe, Is a Boss

By Seth Freilich | TV | April 18, 2023 |

By Seth Freilich | TV | April 18, 2023 |

Last night, Film Independent hosted “An Evening with Seth Meyers,” moderated by Seth’s close friend Mike Schur (The Good Place and Parks & Recreations, among other things). It was a positively delightful event. Both shared their love for I Think You Should Leave and the Boston Red Sox, and told tales of their time on Saturday Night Live.

Of course, the night’s conversation mostly focused on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Seth talked about why he hates interviewing politicians — they stick to their talking points and answer the question they wanted to hear regardless of what was asked — but loves interviewing authors. He loves talking about the writing process, and authors are often teachers and are therefore good in front of an audience and know how to answer questions and have good conversations. Meyers told a story about Henry Winkler, which once again confirms that Winkler may be the best human in Hollywood, and confirmed that he really does get that drunk on the Seth Goes Day Drinking bits. Meyers confirmed his radiant love for the YouTube-only Corrections.

My biggest takeaway from the evening is what a sweetheart Meyers is. The same honesty and earnestness that beams through the TV/computer screen was palpable. He genuinely cares not just about his craft (which is true of many) but about people, in general, and his staff and audience, in particular (sadly, not nearly as universally true). It probably stems in no small part from the fact that when he was growing up, he said, Letterman was his “late-night guy” (as he was for Schur). Letterman people are good people.

But a particular highlight of the night was a brief story about his wife, Alexi Ashe. During the audience Q&A, someone asked how “lobby baby” was doing. For those who don’t know, Ashe gave birth to their second son in the lobby of their NYC building:

At the event, Seth said that people will sometimes come up to their family and reference “lobby baby,” and Axel, now 5, will beam with pride. His older brother Ashe, who’s 7, will invariably jump in with some version of “well I’m ‘hospital baby,’” and Seth laughs as he tells the audience that he has to explain to Ashe that “hospital baby” really isn’t all that special. Adorable.

Anyway, Seth then says, “Oh, let me tell you how absolutely alpha my wife is” and tells this story that was not included in the “Late Night” clip above. Alexi apparently hated the lobby rug in their building. So while in the ambulance — recall that she has just given birth to their child on a floor! — Alexi says to Seth (I’m paraphrasing), “Hey, send an e-mail to the HOA and tell them we’ll pay to have the lobby rug replaced.” That is some grade-A, boss-level shit, y’all. Alexi is out here playing 4D chess while the rest of us are playing checkers.