Jenna Bush Hager 'Went Too Far' With Affair Joke on 'Today' Show

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Jenna Bush Hager

Jenna Bush Hager admittedly went "too far" when joking about what makes a man attractive.

The 41-year-old Today anchor and her co-host Hoda Kotb were in the midst of discussing an article that suggested the "thirstiest" thing a man could do is read when Bush Hager rambled on, implying that she might have an affair with a man she caught reading.

While Kotb supported the report, agreeing that seeing a man reading is "hot," Bush Hager took it a step further, saying she becomes "dehydrated when a man takes out a book."

>>> Sign up for Parade's Trending News newsletter and we'll keep you in the know on the viral pop culture moments and celebrity news everyone is talking about <<<

“OK, you see a man with a book sitting on a park bench in Central Park reading, what is the first thing you’re thinking?” Kotb, 59, asked during the episode airing on Monday, Oct. 9.

Bush Hager pondered the question before joking, "If they have little eyeglasses too, just sitting reading, and if they’re reading something I respect? I mean that could be a means for an affair."

The 41-year-old immediately retracted her statement, assuring fans that she was "just kidding" and "would never do that."

"I would never," she reiterated. "Henry and I are very happy, and he reads."

Kotb saw her co-anchor becoming a bit tense and asked her why she was getting so "defensive" about it.

"Because I shouldn’t have said that! I went too far," Bush Hager admitted.

The Dallas-born media personality has been married to her husband, Henry Chase Hager, for 15 years. The couple shares three children: daughters Mila, 10, and Poppy, 8, and a son named Hal, 4.

Next: Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager Hop on Viral AI Yearbook Photo Trend—See It Now