Jenna Bush Hager said her father, former President George W. Bush, didn’t have a problem with the ribbing he got from shows like “Saturday Night Live” and, in fact, “loved it.”
During Wednesday’s episode of “Today with Hoda and Jenna,” Hager told her co-host, Hoda Kotb, that her love language is “gently roasting,” something from which her father was not exempt. She reflected on laughing at the old SNL skits with her father and twin sister, Barbara.
“I like to harass my dad,” Hager said. “Like when he was the president, Barbara and I would show him … like the ‘Saturday Night Lives’ where they made fun of him and stuff. He loved it!”
“Like when Will Ferrell [impersonated him], but there were other comedians who also did things,” she added. “Once, we were at the gym and there was a bumper sticker that said, ‘A Village in Texas Is Missing Its Idiot.’”
“Barbara and I read it, took a minute and then we were like… We told our dad. He didn’t care,” Hager continued. “He thought it was hilarious.”
Jenna says when her father was president, she and her twin Barbara would show him clips of “Saturday Night Live” where they made fun of him — but he would laugh it off! pic.twitter.com/enSVvUnIJX
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) March 13, 2024
Her co-host Kotb said, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, then you feel like there’s some truth to it.”
“But also, if you’re going to be the President of the United States, people are going to make fun of you,” Jenna added. “And guess what — it ain’t just about you. That’s how it is, man. That’s how it is, that’s how it’s always been!”
The “Today” show co-host has spoken about her relationship with her father in the past. She once discussed how he had encouraged her and then-fiance Henry Chase Hager to elope in 2008.
“My dad wanted us to elope because it was a pain,” Hager told Kotb. “He was like, ‘What are y’all doing? Y’all should just elope.”
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In the end, Dad’s suggestion was a no-go, and Jenna and Henry got married in a private ceremony at the Bush family’s Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford, Texas.
Hager made it clear it couldn’t have gone better.
“The wedding was spectacular,” President Bush said at the time. “It’s all we could have hoped for. It was just a special day and a wonderful day, and we’re mighty blessed.”
Jenna and Henry share three children together.
