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- Jenna Bush Hager just revealed a surprising fact about her marriage to husband Henry Hager.
- The TODAY host admitted she popped the question first—five years before Henry proposed to her—and he said no.
- "He smiled and was like, 'I'm crazy about you, but you're young,'" Bush Hager said on TODAY.
- Here's everything we know about the proposal, Henry, and the Hager's 18 year relationship.
It's been 11 years since Jenna Bush Hager married the love of her life, Henry Hager, but if it was up to her, the pair would have been married much sooner. On a recent episode of TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, Bush Hager revealed she proposed to Henry five (yes, five!) years before he proposed to her.
"I asked Henry to marry me," Bush Hager said during a segment on being the "chooser" in your life, to which Hoda Kotb responded with shock.
"What? You did," she asked. "How did I not know that?"
"Because he said no," Bush Hager laughed. But Henry turned down Jenna's proposal for a very good (and very sweet) reason.
"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 said. But "he smiled and was like, 'I'm crazy about you, but you're young.'"
Henry proposed to Jenna several years later (in 2007) and the pair wed in 2008. That said, here's everything we know about their relationship and the man who turned the president's daughter down.
Jenna Bush and Henry Hager met through "mutual friends."
According to the TODAY host, Bush Hager and Henry met during her father's 2004 re-election campaign, when a mutual friend invited him to Bush Hager's house to watch a football game.
"Henry and I had mutual friends who kind of set us up," Bush Hager said. "He worked... for my dad, and he had a girlfriend, but a friend of mine from college was his intern at work and we were going to watch the Texas game [and she invited him.]"
"He came and he was cute," Bush Hager said.
Speaking of her father, Bush Hager and Henry Hager both come from political families.
While everyone knows Jenna Bush Hager's father—Jenna is one of Laura Bush and President George W. Bush's two children—her husband also has political roots. Henry's father is John H. Hager, the former lieutenant governor of Virginia and the former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services.
Henry Hager also worked for President Bush.
After graduating from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, Henry joined the 43rd president's re-election campaign.
“On Election Day, they were friends," a source told People in 2008. But "by the Inaugural, they were an item.”
However, in spite of their numerous connections, Bush Hager thought their age difference may be a problem.
In fact, during a 2019 TODAY show segment, Bush Hager, now 38, admitted that when she first met Henry, 41, she thought he was "old."
"[My friend] was like 'can we bring Henry' and I'm like 'how old is he?' He felt too old... he was only 28."
But the pair quickly became a couple, and Henry Hager asked President Bush permission to wed his daughter in 2007.
According to Good Housekeeping, the former president responded immediately—and enthusiastically.
"So the guy comes to see me, and he says, 'I want to marry your daughter,'" President George W. Bush recalled. "I said, 'Done deal.'"
As for how the proposal went down, Henry took Jenna on vacation and, according to The Knot, popped the question while hiking Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.
Bush Hager and Henry got married in 2008.
The couple wed at the family's 1,600 acre ranch near Crawford, Texas, and President Bush walked Jenna down the aisle.
"We're mighty blessed," President Bush told CNN. "The wedding was spectacular. It was all we could have hoped for."
After the wedding, the president said at a press conference, "Our little girl, Jenna, married a really good guy."
Today, Henry Hager is a prominent businessman.
Henry Hager is the managing director at Waterous Energy Fund and a member of the Board of Directors for the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
Jenna and Henry have three children together.
The couple welcomed their first child, Margaret Laura "Mila" Hager, in 2013. Two years later, Bush Hager gave birth to their second child, Poppy Louise Hager, and in August, the pair had their third child (and first son), Henry Harold "Hal" Hager.
As for their romance, Bush Hager believes their love has never been stronger.
During a Valentine's Day segment on TODAY, Bush Hager said their love is "solid."
“Your love is like the Post-it note with stick figure drawings of ships passing you left for me on the bathroom mirror when I returned home late. I'd been flying most of the day and I was dehydrated, and thirsty for home, for you,” she said. “Your love is like that note. It is simple and solid and thoughtful."
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