Jenna Bush Hager is looking back on one of the most memorable chapters of Today With Jenna & Friends—the time her husband, Henry Hager, reluctantly stepped in as her co-host. 
During the Wednesday, June 24 edition of Today With Jenna & Sheinelle, Bush Hager fondly reflected on her husband’s guest-hosting appearances, admitting that while he never seemed eager to be on television, his willingness to do it for her made the experience even more special. 
Following Hoda Kotb’s departure from Today in January 2025, Bush Hager temporarily led the show’s fourth hour, Today With Jenna & Friends, alongside a rotating lineup of celebrity guest hosts before Sheinelle Jones officially took over the role earlier this year.
Among all of those guest hosts, one stood out for very personal reasons.
“He was a friend, and he was actually a favorite. Wasn’t he, y’all?” Bush Hager said. “He was cute. And also, it was cute because people knew he didn’t necessarily really want to do it, but he was doing it for me.” 
Although she described co-hosting with her husband as a fun experience, Bush Hager admitted it also came with unexpected pressure.
“I was like, ‘Oh gosh, he doesn’t know how to read the prompter,’” she recalled with a laugh.
She even revealed that executive producer Talia Parkinson-Jones had to remind her to stop interrupting her husband during the broadcast.
“At one point Talia goes, ‘Stop interrupting him.’ I told on you, Talia,” Bush Hager joked. “She was like, ‘Let him talk.’ But I just wanted to help him so much.”
Henry first appeared as a guest host during the show’s “Family Week” in March 2025 before returning later that year to co-host the pre-recorded Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve episodes. 
One of the couple’s most talked-about segments featured them answering questions about their marriage while hooked up to a lie detector test.
During Wednesday’s episode, the show replayed a clip in which Henry was asked whether he loved his wife even more after taking the test together.
Although he repeatedly answered “yes,” the lie detector suggested he wasn’t telling the truth.
Laughing after watching the clip again, Sheinelle Jones wondered whether nerves may have affected the results.
“Does it go off your… was he nervous, maybe?” she asked.
Bush Hager admitted that theory probably didn’t hold up.
“No,” she replied. “Because, unfortunately, some of the other things worked.”
Keeping the joke going, Jones asked whether the experience taught the couple anything new about each other.
Bush Hager didn’t miss a beat.
“That he doesn’t love me anymore,” she joked. “That he was tired of me.”
The couple have been married since 2008 and share three children together—Mila, Poppy and Hal.
Just one day earlier, Bush Hager also shared another amusing story from their relationship while speaking on Today With Jenna & Sheinelle.
She recalled the time Henry unintentionally made her believe he was proposing during one of their dates.
The restaurant they visited allowed guests to create personalized fortune cookie messages. Henry had planned to surprise her with one, but the message never made it into the cookie in time.
Instead, the restaurant brought out two glasses of champagne—despite Henry rarely drinking champagne—and included the fortune separately.
At the time, Bush Hager was preparing to move to Panama to work for UNICEF and had already decided she would stay if Henry proposed.
The message simply read, “Don’t go. Stay.”
Thinking it was a proposal, Bush Hager excitedly looked up and exclaimed, “Yes! Yes!”
Henry quickly corrected the misunderstanding.
“He was like, ‘No, I’m not asking you,’” she recalled with a laugh.
Still convinced, Bush Hager answered, “I will marry you!”
The candid stories offered fans another glimpse into the couple’s playful relationship, proving that some of the funniest memories often come from life’s most unexpected misunderstandings.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
