Jenna Bush Hager still gets emotional recalling her beautiful love story with husband Henry Chase Hager.
"I feel really lucky to have met somebody that has given me three beautiful little babes,” she said of their children while on the fourth hour of TODAY in May 2024. “We’ve created a life together and I’m pretty proud of us.”
Jenna noted the reason they've stayed together for so long is because they've grown together with one another over the years.
"Henry is the best," she said. "He's introduced me to all sorts of things that I love. He was an Eagle Scout, so we go hiking together, we do all these things. But what's cool is we're both interested in growing and he's not the type that's like, 'Oh, I don't want to go see that show, or I don't want to do that.' He's open and that's so fun."
Jenna and Hager's relationship spans two decades.
Sparks first flew between the pair back in 2004, when Henry was working for Jenna’s dad, former President George W. Bush.
It wasn’t long before Jenna knew Henry was the one, and the rest, as they say, was history.
Today, the couple shares three children, and Jenna often offers a glimpse into their life as a family of five over on her Instagram.
Here’s what to know about Jenna and Henry’s relationship through the years.
Jenna met Henry when he was working for former President George W. Bush in 2004
Jenna met Henry through mutual friends while he was working on former President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign.
“He worked for my dad,” Jenna said on the fourth hour of TODAY in 2019. “A friend of mine from college was like, his intern at work, and we were going to watch the Texas game, and they were like, ‘Can we bring Henry?’”
A few years ago, Jenna shared a throwback photo in her Instagram story of the first picture she and Henry ever took together, dating back to December 2004, when she was 23 and Henry was 26.
“We have been together 1 million years,” she joked in the caption.
The couple's ‘worst’ first date involved the Secret Service
As the president’s daughter, Jenna had to deal with some extra complications when dating — such as the presence of the Secret Service.
She recalled one awkward moment when Henry accidentally crashed into a Secret Service car in Arlington, Virginia, as he was driving up a hill to reach a gas station before running out of fuel.
“My worst first date involved the Secret Service, let’s just leave it at that," Jenna said on the fourth hour of TODAY in 2021. “It was with Henry, and his car ran out of gas and went backwards and hit the Secret Service.”
“Were you scared or laughing?” her then-co-host Hoda Kotb asked her.
“I was laughing, but he was horrified,” Jenna recalled.
Henry once snuck out of the White House 'walking as fast as he could'
At one point while they were dating, Jenna said Henry had to sneak out of the White House the morning after their relationship reached “a certain level."
“Henry said he woke up (the next morning) and he looked around and he was, like, ‘Aaaaaaaah’ because he worked for my dad,” Jenna recalled with a laugh on the fourth hour of TODAY in 2022.
She said Henry was “walking as fast as he could” to get out of the White House while trying to play it cool.
“He said to get out of the White House was as hard to get in,” Jenna told Hoda. “The people that guard the White House are looking to see who’s running (inside). Usually, people don’t run out.”
Jenna added that Henry was wearing “his clothes from the night before, pulling on the gate.”
When she shared the funny story on the air on TODAY, Jenna revealed this was this first time she was telling her parents about the incident, too.
“Do you think my parents are going to enjoy that? I mean, I’m 41 almost, and we have three children!” she said.
Jenna knew Henry was the one for her early on: 'I was completely myself'
Jenna knew Henry was the perfect person for her pretty early on.
“I do think one of the reasons why I knew really soon Henry was the one is I was completely myself, and he loved it,” she told Hoda on TODAY in 2020.
She explained that with previous boyfriends, she had pretended to be somebody she wasn’t to impress them — like when she told a high school boyfriend she was an avid skier, even though she had never skied in her life.
“And then comes Christmas and he said, ‘Well, my family’s going on a ski trip and since you love it, too, I’d love for you to go,’” she recalled of the little white lie she told her high school beau. “And I went into my parents and I was like, ‘Mom and Dad' ... it finally caught up with me."
But with Henry, she could just be herself.
“I do think you reach a certain point where you kind of are who you are, right?” she added.
Jenna proposed to Henry first, months after they started dating: 'What are we waiting for?'
Jenna was so sure of her feelings early on, she proposed to Henry after just three months of dating.
“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?’” Jenna shared on TODAY in February 2020.
“He smiled, and he was like, ‘I’m crazy about you, but you’re young.’"
Jenna shared more details on the proposal on TODAY in August 2023, and revealed her sister, Barbara Bush, was there when the moment happened.
“I was 22 years old. My sister was standing with us, we were dancing, and Barbara started shuffling backwards. She was like, ‘What is happening here?’”
She recalled Henry saying he loved her, too, and she said, “‘Me too: Let’s get married!’”
However, Henry didn’t take her tipsy proposal completely seriously.
“He said no, but then five years later we got married,” Jenna recalled. “He didn’t say no, he just was like (laughing).”
Henry asked the president for his daughter’s hand in marriage in 2007
Henry asked Jenna’s father for his blessing during a Fourth of July weekend retreat in 2007 at Camp David in Maryland.
Henry was so nervous about asking the then-president for his permission to marry Jenna that he “read the Bible” in preparation, Jenna told TODAY guest host Justin Sylvester in August 2023.
To make the situation even more nerve-wracking, Henry had trouble grabbing a moment alone with the president.
“He called my dad. He’s like, ‘I’d like to come speak to you.’ He’s like, ‘I’m taking a nap. Come in a couple hours,’” Jenna said on TODAY. “So (Henry) had to sit and stew.”
When Henry did finally speak to Jenna's father, he came prepared.
“And then he had like a seven-point plan of why he wanted to marry me and how he was going to take care of me, and my dad goes, ‘Henry, I said yes. You don’t need to go through anything else,’” Jenna recalled, adding that he said to her mother, former first lady Laura Bush: “‘Laura, Henry’s proposing,’ and that was that. Good thing he did it.”
Jenna and Henry got married in 2008
Jenna wed Henry on May 10, 2008, at her parents’ Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas.
She remembers a sweet moment she shared with her dad on their special day.
“I think my dad picked me up in a pickup truck, in his pickup truck, and he said, ‘You look beautiful, baby,’ and then we both just wept,” she said on the fourth hour of TODAY in 2021.
She also shared that on their wedding day, Henry stood at a cross that her dad had helped build.
“It’s still there, so we have our Christmas services there that we put together, our kids have gotten to stand on it,” she said.
The couple welcomed their first child, Mila, in 2013
Jenna and Henry welcomed their first child, Margaret Laura “Mila” Hager, on April 13, 2013.
Mila is named after both of her grandmothers: Laura Bush and Henry’s mother, Margaret.
Baby Mila had been due in May, but she came early in April after Jenna went into labor at her baby shower.
“I felt like my stomach was going 'blop blop,' and somebody across me goes, ‘Girl, you’re going to have that baby right now.’ And then it was like, three, two, water break,” she recalled on TODAY in April 2023.
She said Henry went into “panic mode” when he heard her water had broken — although at first, Henry thought Jenna was pranking him.
“Henry thought we were playing a joke on him, because Barbara and I have ganged up on him,” Jenna said.
The couple welcomed a second daughter, Poppy, in 2015
Jenna and Henry’s second daughter, Poppy Louise Hager, was born on Aug. 13, 2015.
Poppy was named after Jenna’s grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, whose nickname growing up was Poppy.
“We are proud to name her after a man we so adore,” Henry told TODAY in 2015.
Henry also shared that Poppy’s middle name was inspired by the middle names of his and Jenna’s grandmothers, Louise and Lewis.
Jenna and Henry's third child, Hal, was born in 2019
Jenna and Henry welcomed their third child and first boy, Henry Harold “Hal” Hager, on Aug. 2, 2019.
On Hal’s fourth birthday, Jenna shared his birth story on TODAY.
She revealed that she wasn’t allowed to enjoy celebratory treats immediately after Hal’s birth because she'd had a C-section.
“I had Hal for an hour, and my sister arrived with tacos and doughnuts,” Jenna told Hoda, “and the nurse said I wasn’t allowed to eat breakfast tacos and doughnuts.”
Jenna says she also told Hal about the details of his birth.
“I FaceTimed him this morning and said, ‘Hal, did you know that in one hour, four years ago, you were cut out of my tummy?’” Jenna shared on TODAY.
Hal was apparently not expecting this news.
“He goes, ‘Cut out of your tummy?’” Jenna said.
“You’re so literal,” Hoda told Jenna, laughing.
Henry celebrated Jenna’s 40th birthday with a hilarious prank on TODAY
When Jenna celebrated her 40th birthday in 2021, Henry gave her an unforgettable on-air surprise.
In honor of his wife’s milestone birthday, Henry went undercover as an NBC page and asked people on the street what they knew about Jenna — including asking people to guess her age.
One person guessed she was 32, while another person scolded Henry for asking the question in the first place, because “you’re not supposed to ask a lady how old she is.”
“That was tough,” Henry said afterwards of his brief time as an NBC page. “I’m going to get a coffee, warm up and never try this again.”
He also added a sweet message to his wife.
“Jenna, you’re an amazing anchor. You’re so good at this job,” he said. “I don’t know how you do it. I love you. Happy birthday!”
The couple celebrated their 15th anniversary: 'I love him. A lot.'
In May 2023, Jenna celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary with a sweet Instagram post.
She shared photos from their wedding day, as well as a candid pic of her and Henry riding the subway together, and another cute photo showing them smiling during a boat ride.
“15 years with HH’s hand in mine,” she wrote in the caption. “I love him. A lot.”
Jenna talked about Henry's loving gift during the pandemic: 'It's the little things'
On the fourth hour of TODAY in March 2024, Jenna opened up about how Henry surprised her with a thoughtful gesture during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"During COVID, it was one of those days that was everlasting: doing the show from our kitchen, feeling a little isolated, having no child care, immediately going from the show to getting the kids on Zoom, then cooking for the millionth time," Jenna told Hoda.
But then, Jenna walked into her and Henry's room to find a candle lit and a letter written by her husband.
"I came into our room, Henry had lit a candle, that’s it, and wrote a lovely letter about how even though this was a scary, kind of fraught time, that there would be no better partner he’d rather do it with," Jenna continued.
At this, Hoda let out a surprised laugh and wiped her eye from getting emotional.
Jenna then explained what she thought the loving gifts meant — to "lay down and chill."
"'I see you and I know you’re tired and I know you’ve picked up a lot, and just chill for a minute,'" Jenna explained of the Henry's message behind the two gestures. "It is the little things, right?”
“I think that’s the most beautiful sentiment, and it’s a tiny, little thing," Hoda answered.
Jenna celebrated Henry's birthday and their 16th wedding anniversary
Jenna celebrated Henry's 46th birthday on Instagram on May 9, 2024, when she shared a bunch of photos of Henry and their kids together.
She penned the caption, "Happiest birthday to the best who never took to social media! Henry Hager we ❤️you with all we are! Been together for 20 birthdays.....(still feel 26!!)."
Alongside her sweet caption, Jenna shared 10 photos featuring Henry.
In the first snap, the couple poses for a mirror selfie with daughters Mila and Poppy, who are wearing Taylor Swift gear. Other pics show Henry smiling with Jenna and hanging out with their son Hal.
The couple also celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary on May 10 2024.
Jenna recalled their love story on the May 10 episode of the fourth hour of TODAY. On the show, she said she felt “lucky” to be married to Henry and have “three beautiful little babes” with him.
We’ve created a life together and I’m pretty proud of us,” she said.
Jenna is a fan of her husband’s parenting style
In June 2024, Jenna gushed about something sweet Henry did for their girls, Poppy and Mila.
She shared that he took their daughters to a soccer game to cheer for the Washington Spirit, a professional women’s team based in Washington, D.C.
The girls even had the chance to join the players' huddle before the game, which the Spirit won.
“I’m so happy that I married a man who loves women’s sports. Loves it enough to drive an hour and a half for a 6 p.m. game with the kids,” Jenna said on the fourth hour of TODAY. “To huddle up with these women who are amazing.”
In August 2024, she also shared how Henry helped their kids start an ice cream stand to learn about business and giving back.
She said their family visited an ice cream shop in Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
“He was like, ‘This place is so expensive — watch this!’” Jenna told Hoda.
To give the kids a lesson in finance, Henry took them to a grocery store and spent the same amount on cartons of ice cream. Then, the kids sold those at an ice cream stand in individual scoops and donated the proceeds to charity.
Last summer, Jenna also described how Henry handled their daughter Mila’s request for a debit card (a kind of debit card designed for children to use).
At first, both Jenna and Henry were firmly against it, but then Mila impressed them with her mature reasoning.
“She did a PowerPoint presentation ... on why she was responsible enough now and what chores she would do and how she wanted to learn how to save and how she wants to buy presents for her siblings at Christmas on her own — she doesn’t want us to have to do it,” Jenna told Hoda.
Eventually, even Henry was convinced to give it a try.
“Henry, who is a pretty conservative spender, said, ‘OK, Mila. You’ve earned it,’” Jenna said. “But she did it on her own.”
The couple loves sharing sweet moments from the holiday season
In November 2024, Jenna shared photos of Henry and their children celebrating her 43rd birthday on Instagram.
One photo shows Henry and the kids smiling while holding up her birthday cupcakes, while the other is a more candid pic with Hal, then 5, having “a little bit of a meltdown.”
“Feeling so grateful for all the love...really soaking it in,” Jenna wrote in the caption. “As someone wrote to me today, hoping I slow it all down a little so I can appreciate every single second. Thanks for it all.”
Later that month, she shared more photos of Henry and their kids for Thanksgiving on Nov. 29.
She summed up her feelings about the day in one word in the caption: “GRATEFUL.”
The following month, she celebrated her family of five once more — including their goofy sense of humor — in their annual holiday card.
In one photo from the card, she, Henry and the kids pose sweetly in front of a wooded area, while in the other photo, they are all dressed in fairy-tale inspired outfits.
Jenna and Henry fully committed to their roles with white powdered wigs and 18th-century style garb.
Jenna shared another Instagram post featuring her family of five on Jan. 1, 2025. In a short video clip, Henry holds Hal while Jenna stands alongside their daughters, who are wearing festive sequined dresses.
“2025, we are ready!” Jenna wrote in the caption.
