‘Today’s Jenna Bush Hager Recalls Crying When Her Dad Decided to Run for President

Jenna Bush Hager wasn’t always happy about being the daughter of a U.S. president.

The Today host reflected on her time as one of the country’s first daughters on the Wednesday, May 20, episode of the Las Culturistas podcast. While noting that she and her twin sister, Barbara Bush, “didn’t choose” a life in the public eye, Bush Hager revealed that they were initially opposed to their father, George W. Bush, becoming president.

“When our dad told us he was going to run for president, we broke into tears,” she told hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. “We said, ‘You’re going to ruin our lives,’ which we’ve apologized about.”

She continued, “We told him he was going to lose. We were like, ‘Fine, you’re gonna lose! You can run, but you’re gonna lose!’ I think what it goes to say is we had parents that wanted us to have a normal life. When Barbara and I walk on the street in New York, people are like, ‘We love y’all. Y’all are so normal.’ And that, I think, is a compliment.'”

In addition to being the daughters of George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, Bush Hager and her sister were also the grandparents of former President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush. The twins were 7 when their grandfather became president and 19 when their father took office in 2001.

Yang went on to ask Bush Hager whether growing up in the spotlight has given her a better “perspective” on raising her own kids. (Bush Hager shares her daughters, Mila and Poppy, and her son, Hal, with her husband, Henry Hager.)

President George W. Bush (L) and his family, daughters Barbara (C), Jenna (2nd-R) and wife, first lady Laura Bush (R), hold their hands to their hearts during the playing of the national anthem before taking the oath of office for his second term during inaugural ceremonies on the west front of the U.S. Capitol January 20, 2005 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

“You look at the pressure that’s on teenagers now to go to the school, or to do the thing, or to make it in some way and get the great grades. It’s like none of that really [matters], at least in our house,” she replied. “I’m like, ‘I want happy kids who are kind. That’s all.’ And I think my parents — there was no rule book.”

Bush Hager noted that “things could have been way worse” for her. “At the time, it was not easy. But also, I have the thickest skin ever now,” she stated.

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Earlier on the podcast, Bush Hager recalled frequently being in the press during her college years for underage drinking. “I was not shielded from it at all ’cause I was in college. There was nobody to shield me. It was definitely hard,” she said of facing public criticism. “I also think, ‘Oh, well.’ If that’s my resilience that I had to fight through, like, people have a lot worse, and I mean that.”

Bush Hager used her experiences as a first daughter to make things better for former President Barack Obama‘s two daughters, Malia and Sasha, when he took over the presidency from her father in 2009.

“Barbara and I wrote an open letter in the Wall Street Journal, which basically was like, ‘Leave them alone. Let them be kids.’ But they were kids’ kids,” she said. “And then, by the time the second [term], they were in college, like we were.”

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