Jenna Bush Hager certainly stunned Hoda Kotb and the Today crew when she dished on a hilarious story from the early years of her parents’ marriage.
The Today co-hosts were discussing how they would feel if their partner gave them some constructive criticism after a public appearance when Bush Hager revealed that her father, former President of the United States George W. Bush, had a rather overblown reaction to her mother’s honest opinion about one of his speeches.
“It’s funny that you bring up speeches because when my parents were first married, my dad gave a speech in Midland, Texas, and they were driving up and he thought [that was] pretty good. And he said, ‘Laura how do you think I did?’” Bush Hager recalled.
“And she sort of stalled because my mom is not confrontational, and she just said ‘It wasn’t very good. It wasn’t.’ And he drove the car into the garage!” she exclaimed.
The story clearly left Kotb shocked as she and the Today stage crew all exploded in surprised laughter.
Bush Hager explained, “I guess he hit the wall — we should get the details — but he was so stunned by the honesty that he wasn’t paying attention… I think he was looking at her and then he crashed.”
“I think my dad was just starting so he probably didn’t know the difference. They were very young, they had just gotten married,” she added. She then said with a laugh, “My mom said when they first got together he spoke in rhyme only, because he was just so enamored with her… But he was just so crazy about this love that I think she never said anything [like that].”
The co-hosts then discussed whether they should be as constructive with their children regarding their hobbies.
“For your kids, for your children, if they said, ‘Mom I want to be a singer,’ and you know from listening over many years that maybe being a professional singer isn’t likely, what would you do?” Kotb asked.
Bush Hager replied, “Well, I wanted to be a singer and my mother drove me around to auditions as a chubby little kid so she wasn’t the one that had too tell me. Nobody ever told me that I didn’t have a good voice but I just never got the part!”
She said she still felt like her family “believed” in her.
Today with Hoda and Jenna airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.
