A trip to the DMV turned into heartbreak for Tim Meadows when he discovered his high school girlfriend had cheated.NH
As the star of CBS’ new workplace comedy DMV, Tim Meadows has a one-of-a-kind connection to his local DMV office.
While most people know the Department of Motor Vehicles as a painful purgatory (aka everybody’s least favorite errand location), Meadows, 64, thinks of it as the place where he learned that his high school girlfriend cheated on him… decades after it happened.
During his Tuesday visit to The Late Show, Meadows told host Stephen Colbert about his recent trip to the dreaded government agency, where he was met with a surprising blast from his past.
“I went to the DMV in Detroit, Michigan, where I live now. I had a car that I had to change over,” Meadows explained. “And the guy who was the security guard said, ‘Hey man, I used to date your girlfriend from high school.'”Tim Meadows arrives at CBS Fest 2025 at Paramount Studios on May 7, 2025.
“Like before you dated her? Or after?,” Colbert asked.
“She cheated on me with him in college,” Meadows revealed, sharing that the DMV visit is how he discovered this fact. “He proved it. She went to Michigan State and I called her one time and I heard a guy’s voice in the room, on the phone. And she was like, ‘It’s nobody, it’s just a friend’ — and he was the dude. He remembered the phone call.”
Meadows joked that if nothing else, the unfortunate interaction fueled his DMV character Gregg, a disgruntled worker unfulfilled in both his professional and personal life.
“He was a very unhappy teacher and now he’s a very unhappy DMV employee in an unhappy marriage,” Meadows said, joking, “It’s a very fun character to play.”
DMV premiered to CBS on Monday, introducing viewers to the staff of an East Hollywood office where employees are making minimum wage as they deal with bureaucracy, angry customers, and an impending government shutdown. Meadows stars alongside Harriet Dyer, Tony Cavalero, Molly Kearney, Alex Tarrant, and Gigi Zumbado.
Elsewhere in his conversation with Colbert, Meadows talked about his new kitten, Weezy, who has made him immensely popular on social media, tripling his Instagram following, ever since he started sharing photos of her.
“Are you in a relationship right now?,” Colbert asked. “Because it seems like it’s catnip for the ladies to see a guy who has a cat, I’m just saying.”
The SNL alum replied, “The ladies like Tim Meadows, okay? You know that.”
“A ladies man, we know this,” Colbert agreed, before making a savage callback: “But sometimes, we also know they step out on Tim Meadows. Your story not mine, man!”
While the studio audience booed Colbert’s joke, Meadows only laughed, “That’s true. It ain’t the first and it ain’t the last.”
Watch Meadows’ full conversation with Colbert above.
