Columbia prez engaged to former soccer star

Columbia University Acting President Claire Shipman is engaged to former pro soccer star and coach Kati Jo Spisak.

The lovebirds met in 2021 while Shipman, 62, was promoting her book, “The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance — What Women Should Know,” and did a speaking event for the soccer team the Washington Spirit, NewsNation’s Paula Froelich reported. Spisak, 41, was working for the team’s front office.

Shipman, 62, was previously married to Jay Carney, the White House press secretary under President Barack Obama and now the global head of policy and communications at Airbnb. The coulple share two children.

Carney, 60, is believed to be in a serious relationship with an unnamed woman, and the ex-spouses and their new partners “get along really well,” an insider told Froelich.

Shipman, herself a Columbia alum, has been at the helm of the university since March.

Before that, she spent 15 years working on ABC’s “Good Morning America” as a senior correspondent and substitute anchor. A Washington, D.C. native, she also worked as a White House correspondent for NBC.

Spisak was the goalkeeper for three pro soccer teams — the Washington Freedom, Saint Louis Athletica and Boston Breakers — and served as head coach of the Washington Spirit Reserves. The Missouri native now runs a sports agency.

The pair currently split their time between Washington D.C. and New York, and according to their friends, plan to tie the knot by the end of the year.