When Justin Sylvester co-hosted TODAY with Jenna and Friends in February, he knew he’d get personal. But he didn’t expect to say that.
“We are still together,” Sylvester told Jenna Bush Hager Feb. 18 during a conversation about accidentally saying “I love you” to a significant other.
Before the show, Jenna thought Sylvester was single. And after Sylvester’s story about a time he made a casual love declaration while a relationship was still “fresh,” the TODAY co-host commented, “But y’all aren’t together anymore.”
It turns out, Sylvester and his boyfriend, whose identity the “E! News” host is keeping private, had been together for six months — and already swapped “I love you’s.”
“If you ever met Dolly Parton, she will tell you, even if you don’t ask — keep your relationship private,'” Sylvester tells TODAY.com now.
Now, nine months into his relationship, Sylvester, who has more than 250,000 followers on Instagram, plans to continue to keep their romance off social media.
“When you don’t grow up with a lot of things in life, when you grow up lower middle class, and you don’t have a lot of possessions, and you didn’t grow up with a lot of love in your life — when you finally get it, sometimes you have to keep it sacred,” he says.
But “not forever,” Sylvester notes.
“I think I just want to hide him now because we’re enjoying each other. We’re getting to know one another,” he adds.
Reflecting on that memorable hard launch, Sylvester says he had no intention of talking about his relationship on the show. In fact, the night before he hosted in February, he warned his boyfriend the topic of relationships may come up during the chat.
“I said, ‘Don’t take it personal, but if they ask me, I’m going to say, I’m still single,'” Sylvester says. “I was going to lie on national TV to everybody out there.”
Sylvester laughingly blames Jenna for the reveal.
“This is the problem: She makes you feel so comfortable, you forget that there is a camera and 2 million people watching you because you feel like you’re sitting with your best friend,” he says.
During the chat, Sylvester said his mother would have “dropped her Folgers” in reaction to his announcing his relationship on morning television. Jenna quipped mom Laura Bush might have, too.
As for how Sylvester’s boyfriend reacted?
“He was dying laughing,” he says.
And Sylvester has no regrets over how it happened.
“I think when you’ve dated somebody for over nine months, there’s a pride that comes with it,” he adds. “And I am proud to be in this relationship, and I want him to know that. And I think that was a blessing in disguise from myself that the Holy Spirit just ushered those words out because I do feel that pride being in a relationship with him.”
At this point, they’re “in deep,” he says. He already has ideas about how he might share his boyfriend with the world.
“I think in the next three months, right at that year, I’m going to throw out the back of his head to mark our year anniversary,” he says. “Maybe you’ll get a foot in 18 months. And then at the two-year mark, maybe I might give you a shoulder.
“We’re going to be piecing this man together for the next six years,” he adds. “So come along on this fairy tale.”
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