Jenna Bush Hager Recalls Husband Henry Hager's Romantic Proposal — with 'a Secret Service Man a Couple Paces Behind'

Mar. 15, 2025

Jenna Bush Hagercan vividly remember her husbandHenry Chase Hager’s marriage proposal — plus the secret service agent who was present!

DuringToday with Hoda and Jennaon Thursday, Oct. 3, Bush Hager, 42, andHoda Kotb, 60, discussedLady Gaga’s recent engagement toMichael Polasnkywhen they decided to take their own trip down memory lane.

“I love that, they went on a whole hike,” Bush Hager said of Polansky proposing to theJoker: Folie à Deuxstar, 38.

According to Kotb, proposing on top of a mountain is a bit “predictable.”

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager, October 2021.Alliance for Women in Media Foundation/Getty Images

Alliance for Women in Media Foundation/Getty Images

“We’re at the top, let’s do a proposal,” she said.

“I got proposed at [the] top of a mountain. Are you calling that a predictable proposal?” Bush Hager asked her co-host, who laughed off the interrogation.

Bush Hager continued, “We hiked Cadillac Mountain, which is in Acadia in Maine, national park, which is so pretty. And he proposed to me at the top. Now listen, I wasn’t predicting it.”

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“Grumpy, a little grumpy. And he said, ‘Let’s stop for a Luna bar, the sun is about to come up let’s watch it together.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m too cold to stop.’ I said, ‘Let’s please keep going.’ He said, ‘Can we please stop for a Luna bar?’ I said, ‘No we can’t!’ And then finally he said, ‘We’re stopping for a Luna bar’ and I was like, ‘Ugh,’ ” Bush Hager recalled.

“And then he proposed.”

Jenna Bush Hager and Henry Hager, September 2019.Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

She added she was no longer “cranky” after that.

The two ladies then discussed the possibility of Gaga getting married in a courthouse or having an elaborate wedding.

“I think some people like to do big proposals and big things and spectacles and all that kind of stuff and then some people just do [the opposite]. Yours was private and it was in your own private time,” Kotb said to her co-host.

Lady Gaga and Michael Polansky in September 2024.Jacopo Raule/FilmMagic

Jacopo Raule/FilmMagic

However, Bush Hager, who is the daughter of former PresidentGeorge W. Bush, admitted there was a reason that her then-boyfriend kept things semi-private.

“Well, it was private except there was a secret service man a couple paces behind me. So it was ‘private,’ ” she quipped.

“So, after you and Henry, he was the first person who knew about your proposal?” Kotb asked of the secret service agent.

Bush Hager replied, “Yeah, very weird. That’s why I need lots of therapy."

source: people.com