Jenna Bush Hager Retracts Joke About Cheating on Her Husband: 'Henry and I Are Very Happy'

Jenna Bush Hager made a quip about her marriage while she and Hoda Kotb were filming a live episode of Today.

On the Monday, October 9, program, the ladies were discussing an article that said most women find it attractive to see a man reading, leading Hager to confess she agrees.

"It's hot," admitted Kotb, to which Hager said, "I'm dehydrated when a man takes out a book."

"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 asked.

"If they have little eyeglasses too, just sitting reading, and if they’re reading something I respect? Oh, I mean that could be a means for an affair," she quipped before immediately taking back her remark.

"I'm just kidding, I would never do that," she insisted. "I would never. Henry and I are very happy, and he reads."

"Why are you defensive?" Kotb questioned with a laugh.

"Because I shouldn't have said that, I went too far," the co-host confessed.

The women went back to talking about men reading, as Hager said the perfect man would be outdoors reading a book she approves of while wearing glasses.

They also both noted that it's a turn off if a man is disinterested in books.

The Texas native, 41, married Henry in 2008, and they now share three kids together, though over the summer, the former first daughter confessed she wanted to have a fourth child.

"I'd like to have another baby, but no," she said during a previous episode of Today, then noting that going by the age gaps between all of her kids, "I'm right about the time I should be having (another), like I should be having a baby right now, right this moment."

"No, no, no, we’re not. We’re not. Henry put his foot down," she confirmed of keeping their brood as is. "He says we have three healthy babies. I'm 41 (and) I had a little health stuff (while pregnant) with Hal."

Kotb is a mom to two daughters, whom she adopted with Joel Schiffman before they ended their engagement in early 2022.

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"We have a really great working relationship when it comes to holidays," she revealed of co-parenting. "We speak a lot and we make sure that we divvy it up so that it is ."

“The ultimate goal is when your girls are happy. That’s what we both say, ‘Happy girls, that’s all we want,’” the mom-of-two added. “And that’s what we have. So they enjoy spending time with their dad and they enjoy spending time with me and everybody on my side. So it’s been really good [and] we have a nice mix.”

Kotb said she's open to dating, revealing that her co-host has actually set her up in the past.