Jenna Bush Hager has opened up about how she gave her husband a ‘manipulative ultimatum’ to propose that led to her being humiliated on a Valentine’s Day date.
The Today star dished about the awkward moment on Tuesday’s show, explaining that she tried to get her husband, Henry Hager, to stop her from traveling to Latin America as a UNICEF intern in 2006.
‘When we were dating, I was leaving Washington D.C., and I kind of — in a dramatic fashion you may or may not recognize — said, “If you don’t want me to leave for Latin America, we need to get engaged,”‘ Bush Hager, 41, told her co-host Hoda Kotb. ‘It was a manipulative ultimatum. Real manipulative.’
The former teacher admitted that she laid it on thick, telling Henry that ‘there are very handsome men over there’ as she not-so-slyly nudged him toward proposing.
Jenna Bush Hager, 41, shared on the Today show that she gave her husband, Henry Hager, a proposal ‘ultimatum’ before she headed to Latin America as a UNICEF intern in 2006
The Today star said she told her now-husband, ‘If you don’t want me to leave for Latin America, we need to get engaged,’ but he told her outright he wasn’t going to ask her to marry him
‘He was like, “I’m not going to ask you to marry me,”‘ she recalled.
Bush Hager started to think he had a change of heart when he took her to Asia Nora, a ‘fancy’ restaurant in Washington, D.C., around Valentine’s Day.
She explained that the restaurant was known for making custom fortune cookies, but Henry had called too late to put in his order.
‘They brought two glasses of champagne at the end of the meal and tied around one was the fortune, which they got wrong,’ she said. ‘It was supposed to say something like, “Go, and when you come back, I’ll be here.” But all it said was, “Don’t go” — with champagne.
‘Henry is not a champagne fella, so I was like, “Yes! I will marry you.” And his face dropped. He could have cried.’
To add insult to injury, another couple witnessed the confusion and called The Washington Post, which led to the newspaper publishing the awkward story.
‘And so, in The Washington Post, there was an article that was like, “On a date night Jenna thought she was getting engaged but turns out no she wasn’t.” Restaurant eaters heard her say, “I nearly [beeped] my pants” — it said the word “soiled,”‘ she explained.
Bush Hager recalled how she thought Henry was proposing to her due to a mix-up at a restaurant when he wasn’t, saying the story ended up in The Washington Post
Bush Hager (pictured with Henry in 2006) ended up getting engaged in 2007, but she admitted that her twin sister, Barbara Bush, never thought he was going to do it
The couple said ‘I do’ at the Bush family’s estate in Crawford, Texas, in May 2008
‘So, Henry found that article from The Washington Post, called The Washington Post, got the article, and framed it for Valentine’s Day so that we could always remember the humiliation that comes with love.’
Henry ended up proposing in 2007, and his mother, Maggie, told The Washington Post that he had asked then-President George W. Bush for permission to marry his daughter.
However, the former first daughter admitted that some of her family members weren’t sure he would ever pop the question.
‘Barbara kept telling my mom — ’cause I would call and be kind of grumpy. She’d be like, “I don’t think he’s going to do it. Nope, he’s going to back out. There’s no way it’s happening,”‘ she told Kotb.
Bush Hager has always been head over heels in love with Henry, and a few years ago, she shared how she asked him to marry her after just three months of dating.
They had met when he was working on her father’s 2004 presidential reelection campaign, and she almost instantly knew he was the one.
Bush Hager showed her love for her husband of 14 years on Instagram Tuesday in honor of Valentine’s Day by sharing a snapshot of herself giving him a kiss around Christmas
In her post, she shared a snapshot of her three kids – Mila, Poppy, and Hal – wearing red and pink while eating in the kitchen at their new home in Connecticut
The mother of three also posted pictures of the V-Day cards her kids made and her family’s new cat, ‘Holly,’ wandering around
‘Much love for my Valentines,’ she wrote in the caption
‘After three months of dating — I might’ve had a Christmas cocktail — and we were dancing, and I said, “This is it, I know it, let’s just get married, what are we waiting for?”‘ she recalled.
Bush Hager admitted he turned her down and didn’t propose until five years later.
The couple eventually said ‘I do’ at the Bush family’s estate in Crawford, Texas, in May 2008, years after her attempts to get him to marry her.
Bush Hager showed her love for her husband of 14 years and their three children — Mila, nine, Poppy, seven, and Hal, three — on Instagram Tuesday in honor of Valentine’s Day.
In her post, she shared a snapshot of her kids wearing red and pink while eating in the kitchen at their new home in Connecticut.
She included a throwback snapshot of herself kissing Henry that was taken sometime around Christmas. The mother of three also posted pictures of the V-Day cards her kids made and her family’s new cat, ‘Holly,’ wandering around.
‘Much love for my Valentines,’ she wrote in the caption.
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