No one had a better Mother’s Day than Taraji P. Henson.
Not only did the actress get to celebrate being a proud mom to her son Marcel, 24, but she ended the night by getting engaged to former NFL player Kelvin Hayden and she’s still over the moon about her big news.
Henson opened up to Entertainment Tonight about the surprise moment and admits that she was oblivious to Hayden’s proposal plans.
“I think he was trying to wait, and he couldn’t wait, ’cause he had the ring, and I guess it was burning a hole in his pocket,” Henson shared. “I’m in Atlanta right now, filming What Men Want, and I told him, I said, ‘I’m gonna come home for Mother’s Day,’ and he said, ‘Come home!’ And I noticed the look in his eyes, but I didn’t put it together.”
So after opening up her Mother’s Day gift, a Cartier Love bracelet, the two headed out for a dinner moment she’ll never forget.
“He takes me where we had our first date, I didn’t put that together. I didn’t put it together until we went into the party room after we ate, and I saw a violinist, ’cause he was trying to say it was his friend’s birthday — which it was, on Friday — ‘Oh, Ronald’s gonna have a little get-together in the back room.’ And I was like, ‘Aw, that’s perfect. We’ll already be there.'”
She continued, “I go back there and I go, ‘Ronald’s not into violins, what’s going on here?’And as I’m putting the dots together, I turn around, he’s on his knee and then the river of tears just started and my lashes ended up on the floor.”
The Super Bowl Champion, who played for the Indianapolis Colts, Altana Falcons, and Chicago Bears, popped the question with a sparkler that Henson admits is a real winner.
“It’s perfect,” she gushed. “It’s not too big. It’s not too gaudy. It’s just perfect. He did great.”
The Golden Globe winner is thrilled about her proposal but says she isn’t in a rush to get down the aisle.
“It’s starting to get overwhelming, and we’re thinking, we’re talking a year from now, and I know how fast that’s going to go, so it’s a lot,” said Henson. “I’m trying to just enjoy being blissfully engaged for a minute.”