The Strange Way Howie Mandel Proposed To His Wife Terry The List

"America's Got Talent" judge Howie Mandel didn't have a ring when he proposed to his wife, but he did leave her with something expensive to sweeten the deal.

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By March 2, 2025 4:30 pm EST

Howie Mandel may be known for hosting over-the-top game shows including "America's Got Talent" and "Deal or No Deal," but when it comes to picking a winner in his personal life, he has chosen to be more down to earth. When asking his wife, Terry Mandel, to marry him, Howie popped the question in a very low-key venue: a deli in their hometown of Toronto, Canada. "I'd bought a loose diamond, and I put it on the table and said, 'I got to go to the bathroom, but if you want to make a ring go ahead,'" he recalled to Streets of Toronto. The low-pressure strategy clearly worked because Howie and Terry have been married for over four decades.

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Over the years, they have stayed true to their less-excitable personalities by sharing a mutual commitment to not being overly romantic. Howie said, "I'm not a romantic; neither of us is romantic. One time ... I brought flowers home, and she said, 'Where did you get these?' The truth is, I did take them from the set that I was working on." And while he might not be much of a romantic, he will never pass up the opportunity to prank his wife. When he and Terry were in lockdown along with everyone else during the COVID-19 pandemic, Howie would hide pieces of the elaborate puzzles his wife was working on to pass the time. In an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in 2020, Howie said, "I'd just sit there waiting for the next couple days, just waiting ... and she screams. And I'm in such joy and she's in such pain, and that's the yin and the yang of a long marriage."

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Howie Mandel met Terry Mandel when they were teenagers. They first laid eyes on each other at their local YMCA, and Howie's first move was to ask Terry for money so he could purchase some fries. "I didn't have enough money, so I borrowed a quarter from her, and I've been paying her back ever since," he recalled to Streets of Toronto. But after their meet-cute, Terry rejected Howie's initial advances. "I think the first time I dated her I was 19. She didn't want to go out with me," he admitted on "Today with Jenna & Hoda." And once she finally did, their first date was almost derailed due to bad weather. "I borrowed my mom's car ... I made a left turn and I hit some ice, the car spun, hit the center curb, went up on two wheels," Howie recounted. He was shaken because he thought they almost died but recalled Terry saying to him, "Very funny."

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After so many years together, the two have been through a lot. Terry has helped Howie manage his OCD and even guided his career, with him crediting Terry for encouraging him to accept the hosting job for "Deal or No Deal." Meanwhile, one of Howie's most tragic experiences was when he discovered Terry lying in a pool of blood and rushed to help. They have three children together and are now grandparents, with Howie loving the new role and its lessened responsibilities. He said on "The Jennifer Hudson Show," "To have this bundle of joy, this love that I can't get enough of. And then to be able to give it back when it starts to smell." Not a bad outcome for putting a diamond on a deli table and heading to the bathroom.

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