Jenna Bush Hager recently opened up about her relationship with her parents for her cover story with People. The 41-year-old Today cohost shared that former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush gave her and her twin sister, Barbara Bush, the "absolute best blessing" during their time spent in the White House.
When she was known as the president's granddaughter, when President George H.W. Bush was in office, she was somewhat sheltered from the spotlight. “But when my dad became president, everything changed," she shared.
As teens, Jenna and her sister still wanted normal lives. Their father, George W. Bush, served as president from 2001 to 2009, so they didn't quite get the regular teen lives they'd hoped for.
“We were 18, and he knew how badly we wanted just to go to college and live normal lives,” Jenna said. She ended up studying at the University of Texas at Austin. When she and her sister attended Yale, they had to have Secret Service agents with them.
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She went on to share what her dad promised the two of them. "'Don’t worry. You can live normal lives.' Which ended up not being exactly true. We were maybe all slightly naive, to be honest.”
During her and Barbara's time in college, they often found themselves the center of attention for tabloids. Jenna, however, appreciated the way her parents handled the situations.
“The world was expecting us to be perfect,” she explained. “But our parents did not, which is the absolute best blessing that they could have ever given us: the freedom just to be ourselves and to make mistakes.”
And so that blessing is something that Jenna carries on now, as she parents her three children who she shares with husband, Henry Hager. They have two daughters, Mila, 10, and Poppy, 8. They also have a 4-year-old son, Hal.
“There’s something about growing up and having terrible things said about you, making mistakes publicly, then being able to bounce back and have resilience from that," she said, "Which has allowed me to feel like I can live a really joyful life." She added that those experiences prepared her for the responsibilities of being a Today cohost.
When Jenna shares on national television or on her social platforms, she doesn't hold back. “I don’t worry about what I share about myself,” she said. “Frankly, I am a pretty open book.”
