Jenna Bush Hager admitted she went “too far” after joking she would have an affair if she saw an attractive man reading.
Bush Hager and co-host Hoda Kotb were discussing their love for men who read during Monday’s pre-recorded episode of “Today with Hoda & Jenna” when the former first daughter made the affair comment.
“It’s hot,” Kotb, 59, said of seeing a man read a book.
Bush Hager — who has been married to Henry Hager for 15 years — agreed and teased that she becomes “dehydrated” when she sees a man reading.
“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.
Bush Hager, 41, began to think about the fantasy and added that if the mystery man was wearing any sort of eyeglasses, it’d seal the deal.
“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,” Bush Hager joked.
The mom of three immediately took back her comment and made sure viewers knew she was “just kidding” and she “would never do that.”
“I would never,” she reiterated. “Henry and I are very happy, and he reads.”
Kotb asked Bush Hager why she was getting “defensive” over the joke.
“Because I shouldn’t have said that! I went too far,” she admitted.
The duo moved on from Bush Hager’s personal appreciation for men who enjoy to read and instead fawned over several celebrities – including Ryan Reynolds and Michael B. Jordan – who were photographed with books.
Afterwards, each of them agreed that’d it be a “turn-off” if they went out with someone who don’t enjoy a good page-turner.
The television personality has been married to Henry since May 2008 after meeting during her father George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 2004.
They share three children together: daughters Margaret “Mila” Laura, 10, and Poppy Louise, 8, and son, Hal, 4.
