Hoda Kotbhas nothing but admiration for herToday with Hoda & JennacohostJenna Bush Hager.
Over the years, Bush Hager, 41, has toldTodayfans stories aboutgoing commandowhen meeting King Charles, getting a sunburn on a topless beach while studying abroad in Spain and engaging in“hanky-panky”at the White House while her fatherGeorge W. Bushwas President.
Not only has she been an open book about some of her most “OMG” moments, she’s also been equally as transparent about her issues withfertility,body imageand other sensitive topics.
“When I watched her drop those bombs on the desk, I was like, ‘Girl, what are you doing?’” Kotb recalls of Bush Hager in this week’s issue. “But she’s unabashedly herself. People spend their whole lives trying to get there, and she is exactly who she is.”
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on the ‘Today’ Show in July 2023.Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
As for Bush Hager, who ismomto daughtersMila, 10, andPoppy, 8, and sonHal, 4, with husbandHenry Hager, a financier, she tells PEOPLE she doesn’t give those things much thought.
“In fact I try not to put too much pressure on myself for perfection, because I’m nothing close to that. I find perfection to be wildly boring," she says.
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Jenna Bush Hager.Brian Doben
Brian Doben
During their time onToday, Kotb and Bush Hager have grown into thegreatest of friends. In 2021, theRead with Jennabook club founder credited Kotb for her big break while reflecting on the people who helped kick-start their careers.
“You just need one person to say you can do it, and my one guy’s name was Stan Sandroni, and he was in Greenville, Mississippi. He hired me when no one else would,” Kotb reminisced. “This guy believed, and that’s so shocking because it was like, you just need the one.”
Bush Hager interjected her cohost to ask, “Do you know who my one would be? You.”
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
The duo became emotional as Bush Hager explained that she had been working as a correspondent for years despite her hopes to become a host until Kotbinvited herto the chair.
“I know that sounds cheesy, and I almost didn’t say it,” she confessed. “But I was here for years, doing a lot of different things, and I worked really hard, and I had producers say, ‘Well, you’re a correspondent. That’s where you are.’ And that was good. That was what I wanted to be. I wanted to tell stories.”
“You asked me to fill in with you. And I’ll never forget it, so my one is you,” she said with emotion.
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Bush Hager alsoexpressed her gratitudefor Kotb in March after the journalist had to take a brief absence fromTodayto attend to a"family health matter."
“Hodamakes my life full,” Bush Hager said at the time. “And it’s so interesting, but you don’t really know until somebody’s kind of gone, unexpectedly, how much you depend on them.”
“I mean, I knew I adored her, but I wrote her when she came back and I said, ‘I don’t even know if you know how much you impact my life,'” she added.
source: people.com
