Nope, it wasn’t a planned publicity stunt. Jan Svendsen’s shocked face was genuine after her boyfriend Glenn Weiss popped the question at the 2018 Emmy Awards on Sept. 17. Jan was so thrown off, she mistook his pre-proposal nerves for being “upset.” She even thought Glenn was going to dedicate his speech to someone else! After the award show moved on to the Governors Ball, HollywoodLife caught up with the newly-engaged couple at the after-party for an EXCLUSIVE talk about the proposal.
Of course, Glenn’s proposal was contingent on winning Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special for his role in directing the 2018 Academy Awards. Luckily, he did. “You can never expect one, and it was really nice to win. And I had in my mind if I won, maybe I would do this,” the acclaimed director, who directed several Academy Awards, Tony Awards and more, told HollywoodLife at the glamorous bash, hosted at the L.A. Live Event Deck. “Everything just lined up beautifully. And it was a wonderful moment.” We also got the surprised fiancée to weigh in. “I’m great. I’m marrying the man of my dreams, so how bad is that?’ she joked with us. Then more seriously, she continued, “I had no idea. Nothing, nothing. I’m not good at surprises, so yeah. And I usually figure them out ahead of time if there are any, so this was a total shock.” But Jan did notice one change in the director while onstage!
“He was more nervous than he usually is when he wins an award, because this is his 14th Emmy, and so — I know, I know. But I don’t mean it to sound like that,” Jan, whois the Chief Creative Officer for the Charity Network, explained to us. “But you know, he’s usually like very confident, and I felt like he was really shaky. And I thought that it was because his mother had just passed away,” Jan sadly confided to us. “And I was so happy that he won, because I wanted him — in my head, I was thinking, ‘I want you to dedicate this to your mother,'” Jan revealed. “And so I was thinking, that’s where he was going and that’s why he was so upset, and I thought he was going to cry because of that. But that’s where I was going in my head.”
But Jan wasn’t entirely off. Before Glenn asked to tie the knot with his girlfriend, he gave a shout out to his late mother, saying, “Mom always believed in finding the sunshine in things and she adored my girlfriend Jan. Jan, you are the sunshine in my life.” And it turns out the televised moment was pretty spontaneous, as far as proposals go! After we asked how long he’s been walking around with the ring in his pocket, Glenn admitted, “two days.”
Glenn then revealed who egged him on to go through with his dramatic Emmys proposal! “Literally I sat down with my dad two days ago, thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t know if this is going to happen, but if it does, what do you think of it?” After hashing the plan out, Glenn said his father “dug it out,” referring to the ring his father gave Glenn’s mother 65 years ago! Mazel Tov!