Unlikely friends Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton reunite for 8th Thanksgiving

Unlikely friends Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton reunite for 8th Thanksgiving

For the eighth year, the pair repeated a viral Thanksgiving moment.

ByYi-Jin Yu and Mason Leib

November 23, 2023, 2:20 PM

For the eighth year in a row, Jamal Hinton and Wanda Dench are celebrating Thanksgiving again.

Hinton and Dench are reuniting for another heartwarming encounter after the pair first met in 2016 via a misdirected text message from Dench inviting Hinton to Thanksgiving dinner.

This time, the pair added a couple more seats to the table, courtesy of Airbnb.

“Some may recognize us from our viral text mishap that led to our first Thanksgiving together back in 2016. And eight years later, we’re practically family,” reads their listing on Airbnb’s site.

“To commemorate our lasting friendship, we’re excited to become Airbnb hosts and welcome new guests into our holiday tradition, creating meaningful connections in the process,” the offer continued.

Jamal Hinton reunited with Wanda Dench for their eighth Thanksgiving together thanks to Airbnb who hosted them.Jamal Hinton/Twitter

Airbnb confirmed to “Good Morning America” the Thanksgiving celebration took place on Monday, including a one-night stay with games, movies and storytelling. In honor of the gathering, Airbnb also said it would make a donation to Feeding America, the nonprofit dedicated to hunger relief in the U.S.

The tradition started in 2016 when Hinton, a high school senior at the time, received from Dench a text message, originally intended for Dench’s grandson, inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner.

Winston asked for a picture from the text’s author to which he received a selfie of Dench.

Once Hinton came to realize the mistake, he wrote to Dench with a selfie of his own and two more messages, “You not my grandma” and “Can I still get a plate tho?”

Dench obliged the ask, and a tradition was born.

Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton in a photo posted to Instagram, Nov. 1, 2023, to celebrate the two having their 8th Thanksgiving together after Dench accidentally texted Hinton.Jamal Hinton/Instagram

Dench and Winston have spent every Thanksgiving together since their 2016 chance encounter, sharing photos and updates along the way each year.

The friendship has also endured its fair share of grief. In 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Dench shared that her husband, Lonnie Dench, had died from the virus.

In 2021, Netflix announced it would be developing a feature film based on the serendipitous friendship titled, “The Thanksgiving Text.”

The streaming platform said the movie will tell the true story, noting how a “deep friendship was formed between Wanda and Jamal, despite their very different backgrounds.”

“We are excited to share our story with the world. We hope it inspires more people to reach out and make connections that they wouldn't ordinarily make,” Hinton and Dench said in a statement shared by Netflix. “We are so blessed to find a genuine friendship brought together by God from a mistaken text message.”

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