Nina Totenberg’s Husband: Who He Is, Their Marriage, and Her First Husband
If you’re searching for Nina Totenberg husband, you’re probably looking for a clear answer without having to wade through a hundred tiny trivia blurbs. Nina Totenberg, the longtime legal affairs voice many people associate with Supreme Court coverage, has been married to Dr. H. David Reines, a trauma surgeon, since 2000. Before that, she was married to Floyd K. Haskell, a U.S. senator from Colorado, who died in 1998. Her personal life isn’t usually the headline, but her marriages have been discussed over the years because they intersected in surprising ways with her professional world and her long-running relationships in Washington.
Who is Nina Totenberg’s husband?
Nina Totenberg’s husband is Dr. H. David Reines (often listed as Howard David Reines). He is a trauma surgeon and has held senior roles in hospital surgery leadership, including work associated with the Inova health system in Northern Virginia. Unlike many spouses of high-profile media figures, he has spent his career in an entirely different kind of high-pressure arena: emergency medicine and trauma care, where the decisions are immediate and the stakes can be life-or-death.
That contrast—one spouse working in the carefully sourced, carefully phrased world of legal journalism, the other working in the rapid-fire reality of trauma surgery—helps explain why people find their partnership interesting. They are both professionals who deal with intense situations, just in completely different formats.
When did Nina Totenberg and David Reines get married?
Nina Totenberg and Dr. H. David Reines married in 2000. One reason their wedding became a “known” detail is because it was officiated by a very notable figure: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That fact has been repeated often because it highlights something many listeners only gradually learned over time—Totenberg’s long, personal friendships with major legal figures weren’t just professional proximity; they were real relationships that extended beyond the microphone.
For people who follow Supreme Court culture, this also underscored how closely Washington’s professional and personal circles can overlap. In that world, careers and friendships often braid together in ways that can look unusual to outsiders.
How did Nina Totenberg meet her husband?
The story of how Nina Totenberg and David Reines found each other is often described as a “second-chance” relationship. Both had lived through significant loss in their lives, and they met after those chapters had already shaped them. It wasn’t the kind of romance narrative built on flashy celebrity spectacle; it’s typically framed as something steadier—two adults with full, complicated lives, recognizing a genuine connection at a time when neither was approaching love in a naive way.
That tone—less fairy tale, more real life—tends to stand out, especially because people often assume public figures live in constant, glossy drama. In reality, many long-lasting marriages begin not with fireworks, but with calm compatibility and shared values.
The honeymoon incident people still bring up
One reason David Reines gets mentioned in profiles beyond “he’s her husband” is because of a dramatic event that reportedly happened on their honeymoon. The story is frequently told like a darkly comic twist: during their honeymoon, Nina Totenberg was seriously injured after being struck by a boat propeller while swimming, and Reines—being a trauma surgeon—treated her.
It’s the kind of anecdote that sticks because it feels almost too symbolic: a marriage that quite literally begins with a medical crisis and a partner equipped to handle it. People repeat the story because it’s vivid, because it’s surprising, and because it reinforces the impression of Reines as a steady, highly capable person—someone used to staying composed under pressure.
What does David Reines do for a living?
Dr. H. David Reines is most often described as a trauma surgeon, and he has held leadership and academic-style roles connected to surgery departments. Trauma surgery is a demanding specialty. It often involves:
- Responding to severe injuries and emergencies
- Working long, unpredictable hours
- Making rapid decisions with limited time and information
- Coordinating with emergency teams, specialists, and hospital systems
For someone married to a journalist whose job can involve high-stakes political moments and intense public scrutiny, that kind of medical career creates an interesting balance. Both professions are pressure-heavy, but one is public-facing and interpretive, while the other is immediate and clinical. Many people assume that difference might actually help a marriage—each person understands stress, but they don’t compete inside the same exact arena.
Nina Totenberg’s first husband: Floyd K. Haskell
When people ask about Nina Totenberg’s husband, they sometimes don’t realize she was married before. Her first husband was Floyd K. Haskell, a Democratic U.S. senator from Colorado. They married in 1979, and he died in 1998. That marriage is part of why Totenberg’s personal life occasionally becomes a topic of public interest: she wasn’t married to “just anyone,” and the Washington connection was real in a way that stood out even for a journalist who covered national politics.
At the same time, it’s important not to flatten that chapter into a headline. A marriage to a public official comes with its own complexities—especially for a journalist. People can be quick to turn it into a “power couple” narrative, but the lived reality usually involves a lot more ordinary details: scheduling, health concerns, long workdays, and the personal compromises that happen when two intense careers share one household.
Why her marriage has drawn public curiosity over the years
Nina Totenberg is not a lifestyle influencer, and she isn’t known for oversharing. So why do people still look up her husband?
- She’s been a familiar public voice for decades. Longtime listeners become curious about the person behind the reporting.
- Her career overlaps with powerful legal circles. People are naturally interested in the personal networks around major institutions.
- The wedding officiant detail is memorable. It’s a small fact that hints at a larger story about friendship, access, and proximity to history.
- Her love story feels “human.” Loss, remarriage, and rebuilding life resonates with people more than celebrity glitz.
In other words, the interest isn’t only gossip-driven. For many, it’s about context—understanding how someone can spend a lifetime covering the law while also having a private life that occasionally intersects with the same world.
How her personal life intersects with her public role
Whenever a journalist has personal relationships with public figures, people raise questions—sometimes fairly, sometimes noisily. Totenberg’s career has not been free of criticism on that front, especially because she has known and socialized with prominent legal and political figures over many years. Her marriage in particular isn’t the core of that discussion, but it sits in the same general sphere: her life is not separate from Washington; it is deeply of Washington.
That doesn’t automatically mean wrongdoing or bias. It does mean she has lived close to the people she reports on, which is common in national political journalism but still complicated. The public interest in her husband often becomes a proxy for a larger curiosity: how do power, friendship, and journalism coexist in a city where everyone seems connected?
What their marriage seems to represent
From the outside, Nina Totenberg and David Reines look like a partnership built on maturity rather than performance. He is not a celebrity spouse trying to be famous. She is not presenting their relationship as a brand. Their marriage is more often described through small stories—how they met, how they supported each other, the honeymoon incident—rather than a constant stream of public appearances.
That kind of low-drama visibility is part of what makes people curious. When someone is famous but private, the public tends to fill the silence with questions.
Final thoughts
If you’re looking for the clean answer: Nina Totenberg’s husband is Dr. H. David Reines, a trauma surgeon, and they have been married since 2000. Before that, she was married to Senator Floyd K. Haskell, who died in 1998. Beyond the names and dates, what stands out is the shape of the story: a long career in one of America’s most intense reporting beats, paired with a private life that includes loss, remarriage, and a partner whose own profession is built around staying steady when everything is urgent.
image source: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/nina-totenberg/
