Jenna Bush Hager has admitted that she and her twin sister, Barbara, ‘broke out in tears’ when their father, George W., told them he had made the decision to run for president of the United States of America.
During Tuesday’s episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna, the latter was joined by stand-in host Sheinelle Jones and was discussing their upcoming guest, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and her new memoir when Jenna, 42, decided to share the anecdote.
‘She has a story, and I’ll just go ahead and tell you before she gets here because it’s been weighing on my conscience,’ Jenna told Sheinelle, 46.
‘So, she writes about when she was on President Obama’s short list to become a possible Supreme Court judge, she and her husband sat their daughters down, she has two girls, and said, “Now listen, this is going to change your life and I want to make sure it’s okay with you.” And they said, “Yes, mom this has been your dream, we believe in you.”
She continued: ‘Well, I have a similar story… unfortunately when I was 16, my father sat my sister and I down and said, “Now, listen we really want your support. I’d like to run for President.”‘
Jenna Bush Hager has revealed she and her sister ‘broke out in tears’ when their father, George W., told them he had made the decision to run for president
Jenna pictured with her twin sister, Barbara, and their parents, George W. and Laura, in 1997
Her cohost, Sheinelle, then asked: ‘What did you say?’ as Jenna revealed: ‘We broke out in tears! As only twins can do, we cried in unison! We said, “No, you’re going to ruin our lives, dad.” And then we said, “And even if you run, you are going to lose.”‘
‘Well, that didn’t happen,’ Sheinelle responded as Jenna joked: ‘Well, came close! Anyway, we went after him and since then as an adult, we publicly apologized. That was horrible.’
Of course, George W. did win the November 2000 election and served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.
Of course, there was much interest in the personal lives of Jenna and her sibling, and in 2001 the twins were famously caught underage drinking during their freshman year of college, just months after their father was sworn into office.
The twins have both been candid about being busted for underage drinking and even wrote about it in their 2017 memoir, Sisters First.
Jenna was a freshman at The University of Texas at Austin when she was first picked up by police for drinking a beer in a club in April of 2001 and pleaded no contest to a charge of possessing alcohol underage that same month.
She was ordered to pay $51.25 in court costs while serving eight hours of community service, and she also had to attend an alcohol awareness class.
The next month, Barbara, who was a student at Yale University, was visiting Jenna in Austin when they were arrested for attempting to purchase alcohol at Chuy’s, a Mexican chain restaurant.
The family of four pictured arriving at the White House in November 2004 during George Bush’s time as president
Jenna and Barbara, pictured here in 1997, were famously caught underage drinking during their freshman year of college
Jenna pictured leaving the White House with her father in July 2004
That came after the manager notified authorities from the restaurant to report that a group of individuals who did not look 21 were ordering alcoholic beverages.
Barbara had already been served by the time police arrived and was charged with underage possession, while Jenna was rejected for using an ID that belonged to someone else who was of legal drinking age.
The incident landed the two on the cover of weekly magazines.
Jenna recalled on the Today show in 2022 that her father ended up apologizing to her and her sister after telling them the First Daughters they could be ‘normal’ at college.
‘The fact that we thought we could do that just speaks to how [our parents] were like, “Oh, you can be normal, it’s OK,”‘ she said, admitting it was a ‘stupid’ thing for her and her sister to do as public figures who were underage.
‘When I called my dad to say, “I’m really sorry… I got this ticket for drinking underage,” he said, “No, I’m sorry.”
‘We did embarrass [our parents], but they never would say that. He said, “I’m sorry, I told you [that] you can be normal, and you can’t. You can’t order margaritas.”‘
