Stephanie McMahon has opened up about her relationship with Triple H, revealing what her husband is like away from WWE and sharing the story of how he proposed to her.
The couple married in October 2003, and McMahon discussed their relationship during a fan mailbag segment on What’s Your Story? with Steph McMahon, recorded around her 50th birthday.
Asked how Triple H differs at home from the various versions fans have seen on television, McMahon said viewers have actually been exposed to many elements of his real personality over the years.
“You’ve seen him in DX, you’ve seen him behind the scenes in Unreal. You’ve seen him, you know, like in so many different variations that I think you are kind of exposed to his personality in different ways,” McMahon said.
“If you’ve been paying attention, which I obviously do very closely, I love my husband more than anything in the world. You know, different from the love I have for my children. This is my husband. This is my partner. He’s my person. He’s my soulmate. He’s my everything, and I am so blessed,” she added.
McMahon believes one quality fans may not fully appreciate is the size of Triple H’s heart, which she said was what initially made her fall in love with him.
“He’s really funny, right? But like you know that from DX, he’s really, really smart. Which of course you know that in general anyway. But I guess maybe what people don’t know is how huge his heart is, and his heart is what I fell in love with first, and the way he treats kids, the way he respects people, the way he goes, the way he supports women. He has taught me so much. He always holds me to my highest standard. He brings out the best in me and everybody around him,” McMahon said.
“He sees talent in not just wrestling talent, but he sees talent in people that they don’t even know is there in themselves, and he brings it out of them. You know, like he’s so giving, so unselfish, and he’s an amazing girl dad,” she added.
Another fan asked McMahon about Triple H’s marriage proposal. She explained that the story began while he was recovering from his first torn quad, an injury that kept him out of action from May 2001 until his memorable WWE return at Madison Square Garden in January 2002.
“So going back to when he was recovering from his quad tear, his first quad tear, and we were now like fully an item, and it was right before he came back, literally like maybe a few weeks before the Garden, and he took his first vacation in however long. And we went to this island in Florida, and it rained the entire time,” McMahon said.
During that trip, Sade’s “By Your Side” became particularly meaningful to the couple.
“But we had splurged, and there was a chef, and he kept playing Sade, ‘By Your Side,’ and Paul, who never danced ever, asked me to dance, and I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ I mean, I love this guy. I always loved him, even though I didn’t know it. And there we are dancing, and I thought to myself, ‘If we ever get married, this will be our wedding song,’” she said.
“So I told him that, and that when he was gone, often I would play that song, and I would like imagine him there, and I would kind of dance around the room or whatever,” McMahon added.
Triple H later asked Vince McMahon for permission to marry Stephanie at Christmas. Because he was scheduled to be on the road for Valentine’s Day in 2003, he arranged the proposal shortly beforehand.
“I remember I had a terrible migraine that day, and but I knew I was going to dinner, and at the last minute, he told me to pack an overnight bag,” McMahon said.
Triple H took Stephanie to a hotel, where he recreated the significance of their earlier dance by once again playing “By Your Side.”
“We go to this hotel and on the bed are rose petals in like a heart, but I just think he’s being romantic, and he asked me to order room service right while he’s doing whatever, and so I order room service, and I’m like, okay, whatever, and looking around this like amazing room that we’re in, and he then brings out, you know, like a boombox, which is like a little mini fridge size speaker on the shoulder, and he plays Sade, and he asks me to dance, and while ‘By Your Side’ is playing, he was like shaking, and I remember thinking, like, ‘Oh my god, he hates to dance so much that he’s shaking, but he’s doing it for me. Like how sweet is this?’ And the song ended, and he got down on his knee, and he asked me to marry him,” she said.
McMahon admitted she was so surprised that she initially didn’t give Triple H an answer, leaving him wondering whether she had accepted.
“And I was silent. I was silent. I was like in shock. When I’m really, like, surprised, I go quiet, you know. But I was freaking out on the inside, you know. And he asked me, and it was so beautiful, and I just didn’t say anything. And he’s like, ‘Is that yes?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’” McMahon said.
