Dana Perino is well-known as a political commentator and former White House Press Secretary, but her personal life could easily be the plot of a romantic comedy. “The Five” host didn’t expect to meet her husband, Peter McMahon, when she boarded a Chicago-bound flight in 1997, but that’s exactly what happened. What people don’t know about Perino is that she wouldn’t have met her husband at all if they hadn’t both been running late. Perino and McMahon were the last two people to board the plane, which meant they were assigned the only remaining seats right next to each other.
McMahon made an immediate impression on the former press secretary. During an interview with the American Enterprise Institute, she recalled him asking if he could put his bag above them. “And I look over. I’m like, ‘accent,'” she joked. Perino admitted she was instantly drawn in by his British accent, then noticed that he was handsome and had no wedding ring. Her feelings towards McMahon only intensified throughout the flight.
Since McMahon was from the UK, they had to part ways when the plane landed, but Perino gave him her contact information. It took McMahon 10 days to reach out, and by then, Perino had started to lose hope. Just as she was preparing to forget about him, he emailed. 10 months later, Perino moved to England to be with him.
Perino Had Many Doubts At The Start Of Their Relationship
Dana Perino smiling© Theo Wargo/Getty Images
Dana Perino and Peter McMahon married in 1998. After more than 25 years of marriage, the couple is still going strong, proving that the 18-year age gap was just a number for them. Initially, that difference was one of many things Perino worried about when pursuing McMahon. “I’m only 25. He’s 43. What are we going to do … this can’t be possible,” she remembered thinking. “I had a lot of reasons to talk myself out of it,” she told the American Enterprise Institute.
McMahon living in England was another concern for Perino, who was on the cusp of her stunning career transformation. But she took the leap, moving to England and fully committing to their life together. In an opinion piece for Fox News, Perino described their marriage as the “best decision [she] ever made,” while simultaneously reflecting on it being “sometimes the hardest thing [she’s] ever done.”
She considered the odds of meeting McMahon and how close she was to missing out on a beautiful lifelong experience. “Still feels improbable,” she wrote. “What if I’d missed the plane or was assigned to a different seat?” Despite the odds stacked against them, the pair met and have never looked back.
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