Jenna Bush Hager Recalls Giving Husband 'Ultimatum' to Propose: 'It Was Real Manipulative'

TODAY with Hoda & Jenna/Twitter

Jenna Bush Hager is getting candid about a "humiliating" Valentine's Day moment between her and her husband, Henry Hager, when they were dating.

The Today with Hoda & Jenna host, 41, recalled giving her future husband an ultimatum to either propose to her or else she would move to Latin America.

"I had kind of — in a dramatic fashion that you may or may not recognize — said, 'Listen, if you don't want me to move to Latin America, we need to get engaged,'" she said, admitting, "It was kind of like a manipulative ultimatum."

However, she said he wasn't keen on the idea, and outright told her, "I'm not going to ask you to marry me." But she began to think he'd changed his mind when they went out on a date around Valentine's Day to a fancy restaurant called Asia Nora.

"They brought two glasses of champagne at the end of the meal and tied around one was the fortune which they got wrong. 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," she said.

"And Henry is not a champagne fella, so I was like, YES! I WILL MARRY YOU!'" she continued. "And his face dropped. He could have cried."

But that wasn't the end of it, as she said another couple at the restaurant called The Washington Post and told them what happened, leading the story to be printed.

"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 said.

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REX/Shutterstock Henry Hager and Jenna Bush in 2006

"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," she continued.

She said her family would also often weigh in on her getting a proposal.

"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. He's going to back out. There's no way it's happening,'" Bush Hager said.

Henry eventually proposed years later, and the two wed in a private 2008 ceremony at former President Bush's secluded 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas. They went on to welcome three children: Margaret "Mila" Laura, 9; Poppy Louise, 7; and Henry "Hal" Harold, 3.

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Having been married for nearly 15 years, the couple is still going strong. On Monday's episode of Today, Bush Hager was fit with an EEG cap, a test that monitors and measures electrical activity in the brain and shown pictures of Harry Styles, Tom Brady and even her cat Hollywood Hager. Her brain waves responded the most strongly to her husband, who even showed up to send her a message.

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"Jenna, I understand you just finished a love study and that I came out on top," he said in the message. "You do actually love me, (and) I love you," adding that "it's hard to believe" he came out on top.

He also wished her a Happy Valentine's Day.