Jenna Bush Hager Cringes As She Tells Hoda Kotb On ‘Today’ About The “Awkward” Time Her Parents Invited Her “Old Boyfriend” And “New Boyfriend” To A Surprise Party 

By Radhamely De Leon
Published Aug. 29, 2023, 11:31 a.m. ET

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Not everyone is a big fan of surprises, but it turns out Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager are.

At the top of Tuesday’s (Aug. 29) broadcast of Today With Hoda & Jenna, the co-hosts weighed in on a highly controversial topic: surprise birthday parties.

In a surprise twist, Bush Hager revealed her parents, former U.S. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, are “creative birthday party planners.”

“I had a surprise party for my 16th birthday, me and Barbara,” she recalled. “We had one together and it was a pancake breakfast which was cute.”

Bush Hager explained that she and her twin sister, Barbara, believed they were leaving for school early so they could go get theirs drivers licenses. “We were going to kiss my dad goodbye for school, my mom was like, ‘Go in and tell dad goodbye,'” she said. “And we walked in and all of our friends were sitting there.”

But her parents’ “creative” birthday ideas had their awkward moments, too.

“My parents were very creative birthday people which was fun but then it gets kind of awkward because it’s like [they have] the old boyfriend sitting next to the new boyfriend,” Bush Hager said with a cringe.

Jenna Bush Hager on 'Today'
Photo: NBC

Kotb gasped in response. “They invited both boyfriends?” she asked in disbelief. “Your parents are wild.”

Bush Hager has previously spoken about her experiences growing up in the public eye because of her father. She recently told People that “the biggest blessing” her parents gave her was “the grace to fail” when she was younger.

“I had parents that really supported us and never made us feel bad about mistakes that we made,” she said. “But yeah, it wasn’t easy. And yet I’m so thankful for all of it.”

“I think the world was expecting us to be perfect, even though our parents did not, which is the absolute best blessing that they could have ever given us. The freedom to just be ourselves and to make mistakes,” she said. “Because I don’t know how I would be a mother without having the grace to fail. I think kids, teenagers are so scared of making mistakes now.”

Today with Jenna and Hoda airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.