Jimmy Fallon‘s proposal to then-girlfriend Nancy Juvonen didn’t exactly go according to plan — but it all worked out in the end.
During Tuesday’s at-home edition of The Tonight Show, the comedian and his wife of 13 years shared the story of how they got engaged, with Fallon, 45, recalling how Juvonen, 52, threw a wrench in the plan.
“I had the ring ready to go. Weirdly, I had the ring from Neil Lane, who is now Bachelor famous,” he said. “I remember I called your dad for permission. He said yes. And I asked your brother as well. … Your brother was cool with it, too.”
“And then what happened was you messed everything up for me,” Fallon continued. “You get to the door and you go, ‘I have a surprise for you.’ And I go, ‘I hope it doesn’t mess with my surprise,’ which was the big thing.”
Juvonen’s surprise ended up being a dinner reservation at Per Se, a famous and acclaimed restaurant in New York City.
“I was dying to go to Per Se … but I didn’t want to get engaged at the restaurant,” Fallon said. “I [wanted] to get engaged in like, Gramercy Park, or something that would just always be around — something classic. I didn’t want to go to a restaurant, because what if in 30 years the restaurant changes hands? Now it’s a laser tag place. Now it’s like, ‘Kids, this is where your mom and I got engaged — at the laser tag house.'”
They went to dinner, with Fallon deciding he would do it afterwards — only for the meal to last several hours.
“It was an amazing dinner. Cut to — I’m not kidding — 14 courses later,” Fallon said. “And then we got home, and your brother texted or called and was like, ‘Did you do it? What’s up?’ And I go, ‘No, man, our dinner was like, four hours or something.’ He goes, ‘You’ve got to do it. Just go to Molly’s or something and do it.’
So Fallon asked Juvonen if she was down to go out for “one more drink.”
“You go, ‘Really? Are you serious? I will, but I’m ready to watch TV and go to bed,'” he recalled with a laugh. “So that’s what we did.”
In fact, he didn’t get down on one knee until several months later.
“It was, I think, longer than your parents and my parents wanted,” Juvonen admitted. “But I just knew we were going to be together. It wasn’t like, ‘We’ve got to get married or not get married.'”
“I was just trying to find the right place to do it,” Fallon explained. “I know, I know, I know, but I’m very particular. I’ve got to make sure it’s the right spot.”
The right spot ended up being Juvonen’s family’s summer house in New Hampshire. One night, Fallon took her out to the dock for a cocktail at sunset.
“I played Harry Nelson, and I said, in my head, ‘Don’t cry. Let her cry first, if someone’s going to cry,'” he said. “Because I hyped it up in my head, I get very emotional — I’m Irish. Very emotional person.”
Of course, as soon as he pulled the ring out of his pocket, he started tearing up.
“I get down on one knee and I’m like, shaking,” he recalled, laughing. “My voice is quivering, it looks like I’m having a heart attack. Nancy’s like, ‘Are you okay, dude? Are you going to be all right?’ And then I just said, ‘Hey, will you marry me?’ And you said yes.”
To make things even more special, Juvonen’s family witnessed the entire thing and cheered the couple on from inside the house. Her brother even has it on tape, Juvonen revealed, but is saving it for their 20th anniversary.
The late-night host has been featuring his family in the at-home editions of his show amid the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this month, one of his two daughters with Juvonen, 6-year-old Winnie Rose, hilariously interrupted his interview with Russell Wilson and Ciara to announce that she had just lost a tooth.
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