The Singleton-De-Andrade nuptials are set to be broadcast live at 9 p.m. Tuesday on the Lifetime network. About 100 people are expected at the all-expenses-paid wedding. Singleton’s 15-year-old brother, Caleb, is his best man, and his 18-year-old sister, Camryn, is a bridesmaid.
The Singleton siblings lost both parents in recent years. Their dad, Chris, died in 2017 from health complications. Their mom, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, was one of nine black parishioners fatally shot by white supremacist Dylann Roof at a Charleston church in 2015. Singleton said he hopes his parents are honored at his wedding ceremony.
“Me and David talked about that, and I thought, I’d love to get something in the wedding that’s … something happy, I guess, not something super sad or anything like that,” said Singleton, who played in the outfield for the Cubs’ Class A minor league team in South Bend last year.
Singleton, 22, and De Andrade, 21, met as students at Goose Creek High School near Charleston. They got engaged before their son, Chris Jr. (C.J.), was born in October 2017.
Last summer, Thinkfactory Media — the production company behind “My Great Big Live Wedding” — reached out to Singleton to ask if he was interested in applying for a free wedding.
“Of course I thought it was a joke at first. I thought it was somebody that calls you or leaves you a message saying you won a free cruise to somewhere,” Singleton said. “And then there was a couple more messages. I said you know what? Maybe this thing’s real. And then I ended up talking to a guy whose name is Justin on the phone, back and forth. He put me through the process of trying to win the wedding and did a couple Skype interviews, one with my family as well, and then, yeah, we were lucky enough to win it.”
Singleton and De Andrade, an accounting student at the College of Charleston, and seven other couples were chosen for the show because their “remarkable stories of love and survival redefine real love,” according to Lifetime. Firefighters, wounded veterans and a man who was shot in the 2017 Route 91 Harvest music festival massacre in Las Vegas are among those featured on “My Great Big Live Wedding.” The eight-part series premiered Feb. 5.
Singleton said he may be able to squeeze in a honeymoon before he reports to Cubs spring training in Arizona on March 1. The Cubs signed him in 2017.
He visited the Chicago area last week to talk to students at Lewis University in southwest suburban Romeoville. He’s been speaking at colleges, high schools and churches since his mother’s death, spreading his message that “love is stronger than hate.”