Public proposals are commonplace. Jumbotrons at sporting events often display variations of “Will you marry me?” as spectators await the answer to The Question.
“When you see those proposals, it’s kind of like … been there done that. And you wish there was more creativity involved,” said Howard Chen, an ESPN producer who played an integral role in pulling off a surprise for two longtime friends last week at the Asian American Journalists Association convention in Austin.
Toward the end of AAJA’s gala banquet Saturday, at which Connie Chung was honored with a lifetime achievement award, co-emcee Jason Nguyen — with Chen’s help — proposed to his co-emcee, Rosie Nguyen.
“I had no idea — ZERO — that before we were about to say goodbye, he was going to get down on one knee,” Rosie Nguyen, the race and culture reporter for KTRK in Houston, posted Monday on Facebook.
Jason, senior investigative producer at KPRC, enlisted a small circle of AAJA members and staff to help him keep the proposal under wraps. “There was no reason to say no!” said Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, AAJA’s executive director. Chen’s biggest role was ensuring that Rosie’s family could witness the moment via FaceTime.
The Nguyens, whose shared last name means they have often joked that they are unrelated, met in 2014 as pageant co-emcees in Salt Lake City. “He snatched my dream of becoming the first Vietnamese reporter” in that TV news market, Rosie posted last year on Facebook.
They reconnected in 2016 when Jason was working in Portland, Oregon, and Rosie was in Eugene. In 2018, she returned to her hometown of Salt Lake to report at Jason’s former station, KTVX. A year later, Jason (then in Chicago) followed Rosie to Utah, where KTVX hired him as an investigative reporter.
When AAJA invited the Nguyens to co-emcee this year’s gala, Jason started thinking that because they met as co-emcees — and have been together as a couple for six years — that their relationship would come “full circle” if he proposed while they were onstage.
“Journalism brought us together, and journalism is what has kept us together,” Jason said. Plus he liked the idea of having their peers witness an important moment in their lives.
Jason, who had been standing next to Rosie at the lectern, led her toward center stage as the gala began to conclude. People in the room began to suspect they were exchanging more than usual emcee banter, especially after Jason said he had talked with Rosie’s family and Chen appeared onstage with Rosie’s mother and sister on video chat.
Jason said he had talked with their families and even their dog, Dug (“every time she was gone, I would practice (the proposal) with Dug”). Scores of journalists in the room held their camera phones aloft to capture the moment when Jason got down on one knee. As Rosie said yes, the cheers around the room were deafening.
“No matter how many times I watch that video, there’s emotions that come up in my eyes,” Chen said.
The question now is whether they will have their wedding reception at next year’s AAJA convention.
