Things You Didn't Know About Jenna Bush Hager
Jenna Bush Hager has been in and out of the spotlight ever since she was a teenager, back when her father, President George W. Bush, made his first of two successful bids for the White House in 2000. In that time, Bush Hager has grown up before our eyes, overcoming run-ins with the law as a teenager to become one of the newest and most popular faces on NBC. But just how well do you really know this former First Daughter? Test your knowledge with some of these fascinating and jaw-dropping facts.
She originally did not want her father to run for president
Although George W. Bush wound up serving two terms in office, daughter Bush Hager allegedly did not take well to the idea of her father running for President in the first place. "Oh, I just wish you wouldn't run ... It's going to change our life," she reportedly said, according to Newsweek.
Her attitude reportedly changed during the winter of 2003-'04, when she had a dream in which her father lost his re-election campaign. From there, Bush Hager's role in her father's campaign kicked into overdrive. She and her sister Barbara, made appearances on the campaign trail, spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention and even posed for a spread in Vogue magazine. Dubya, of course, eventually won—and likely gave his youngest daughter a huge hug afterward.
Ironically, she met her husband on the campaign trail
As it turns out, Bush Hager's nightmare turned out to be a blessing in more ways than one. According to People magazine, the bubbly Texan met her now husband, Henry Hager, while working on her father's re-election campaign in 2004. The couple got engaged three years later and were married in 2008, at the President's Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas. In doing so, she became the first daughter of a sitting president to marry in 16 years.
Hilariously enough, when asked about Henry Hager in 2005, First Lady Laura Bush seemed to imply that he was just a fling. "This is not a serious boyfriend — I hate to have to be the one to say it on television," she said, according to the Washington Post. "But he's a very nice young man."
She confessed to 'hanky-panky' in the White House
During a 2014 interview on the Bravo talk show Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen pressed Bush Hager on whether or not she hooked up with any guys while in the White House. This, after a caller asked her a similar question.
"A lady never tells," Bush Hager initially told the caller, according to US Weekly. Even though she still denied it, Bush Hager eventually admitted to Cohen that "a little hanky-panky" went down. "There was maybe a kiss on the roof," she said.
She once tried to set up her twin sister with Prince Harry
In 2016, during a taped interview about the Invictus Games, Bush Hager boldly took it upon herself to suggest that the Games' creator, Prince Harry, ask her single twin sister Barbara Bush out on a date.
The hilarious moment came as the two were discussing the pressures of becoming parents. "Everybody's always asking me. I have no idea. I haven't even got a girlfriend at the moment," Harry said (via AOL). To which Bush Hager replied, as any sane person with a single sister would: "I have a single sister and she feels the same way. Listen, she's available."
Things obviously did not pan out for Harry and Barbara, as Harry has been in a serious relationship for months with Suits star Meghan Markle. Barbara, meanwhile, was apparently "humiliated" by the on-air set-up, Bush Hager later confirmed.
She's fared better than Chelsea Clinton on NBC
When it comes to First Daughters on NBC, Jenna Bush Hager is clearly MVP. Since joining NBC in 2009, she's become quite the familiar face on the network's morning news hours, often filling in during the 9 and 10 a.m. hours with her bubbly, peppy vibe. In fact, Bush Hager has done so well for herself that ABC tried to poach her in 2015, sources revealed to the New York Post.
Of course, her stint on NBC hasn't been without scandal. In January 2016, while co-hosting NBC's Golden Globes red carpet special, she accidentally combined the movie titles of two prominent black movies during an interview with the singer Pharrell, prompting a ton of bad press and a swift, tearful on-air apology.
Despite the flub, Bush Hager appears to be doing much better than the most recent First Daughter to snag a deal with NBC, Chelsea Clinton. Throughout her stint on the network which began in 2011, Clinton was criticized for being everything from boring to overpaid. She eventually left the network in 2014, shortly before welcoming her own first daughter, Charlotte.
She's been cited twice for underage drinking
Ask anyone who's ever seen the Katie Holmes movie First Daughter and they'll be the first to tell you that growing up as the teenage daughter of the President of the United States can be a challenge, to say the least. Bush Hager learned this lesson the hard way in 2001 when the then-19 year old received two alcohol-related citations within the span of less than five weeks, according to USA Today.
For the first citation, she was caught drinking at a bar in Austin, Texas, an incident for which she was "ordered ... to perform eight hours of community service and to take an alcohol awareness course after she pleaded no contest to being a minor in possession of alcohol," according to the report. For the second offense, Bush Hager was cited for buying alcohol with a fake ID at a local Tex-Mex restaurant, also in Austin. Her twin sister, Barbara Bush, was cited for being a minor in possession of alcohol.
The incident at the Tex-Mex restaurant created a massive scandal for the White House, to the point where the Bush daughters were suddenly splashed across the pages of gossip magazines. "It's not a subject anyone wants to bring up," a White House insider told People magazine in June 2001. "Nobody is broaching it ... The parents are disappointed and concerned."
She's co-written thoughtful letters to the Obama daughters
As Sasha and Malia Obama prepared to leave the White House, Bush Hager and her sister, Barbara, penned them a touching letter, offering their support and encouragement. "You have lived through the unbelievable pressure of the White House," the letter read (via TIME magazine). You have listened to harsh criticism of your parents by people who had never even met them. You stood by as your precious parents were reduced to headlines. Your parents, who put you first and who not only showed you but gave you the world. As always, they will be rooting for you as you begin your next chapter. And so will we."
Bush Hager and her sister also wrote a similar letter to the Obama daughters a letter in 2009, just as they were about to enter the White House. Now, if only the rest of Washington could get along like this.
She's an author
Not only is Bush Hager a successful TV personality, she's also a published author. In 2008, she published her first book, Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, a true story based on her experiences from an internship with UNICEF, during which she traveled through Latin America and the Caribbean. About two years later, she and her mother, Laura Bush, teamed up to co-write a children's book, Read All About It, about their "mutual love of reading and teaching," according to Bush Hager's Today show bio.
The mother-daughter duo teamed up a second time to write the children's book Our Great Big Backyard, which was released in early 2016.