‘Tis the season for heartwarming holiday surprises — and we promise this one is a doozy.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon pulled off one of the most tear-jerking military homecomings Friday involving one of the show’s staffers.
Johnson announced that he didn’t want to leave the show before giving back to a military family, and proceeded to reunite “Tonight Show” producer Karina Kabalan and her husband Todd, who have been living apart for a year and half since Todd is a master sergeant in the Air Force deployed overseas.
Karina had been thrown for a loop since Johnson initially said it was a member of the audience who would be getting the surprise. Instead, while pretending to search the crowd, Johnson and Fallon made their way up to the show’s control room where they called Karina’s name, almost immediately bringing her to tears from excitement.
“What is happening right now?” she cried out before standing to greet them in disbelief.
“I hear you’re a producer on the show and an Army vet,” Johnson told her.
Karina met her husband while they were both deployed in Iraq, Johnson shared.
“I personally heard that you are the most amazing person,” Johnson added after Todd crept in behind her, “and we wanted to bring your husband home for the holidays. Turn around and hug your husband.”
There appeared to be no dry eyes in the control room as Karina turned to find her husband standing behind her, arms opened wide, in his uniform.
After a heavy embrace, Karina expressed her shock on how something like this could have been pulled off without her knowing. One of the show’s writers, Mike DiCenzo, later Tweeted out a photo of the segment’s secret script. Its cover was disguised to look like information on Comcast benefits.
“Great job by our staff to keep it secret,” DiCenzo tweeted.