Jenna Bush Hager Reveals That She Role-Plays As An Old, Marlboro-Smoking Grandma With Her Daughters On ‘Today With Hoda and Jenna’

Imaginative play is good for kids, and sometimes fun for parents, too. On today’s episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna, co-host Jenna Bush Hager admitted that she sometimes pretends to be an old, chain-smoking grandma with her daughters Mila and Poppy, and it sounds like some hilarious role-play.

After watching a clip of the upcoming Ryan Reynolds film If, about a girl who can actually see other people’s imaginary friends, Hoda Kotb and Bush Hager discussed whether they or their kids ever had imaginary friends or play pretend.

Bush Hager said that she never has imaginary friends herself, “but I did just talk to myself constantly.”

“My friends were my Barbies,” she added. But then she revealed that she occasionally plays a pretend game with her daughters that they call “Montana.”

“Mila, Poppy and I used to play something we called Montana, and I was Montana’s grandmother, and we pretended Poppy was Montana, and I would just talk like I’d smoked the whole pack of Marlboro Reds, like [adopting a gravelly voice] ‘Montana, get in the bathtub!’ And they’d be like, ‘Okay!'”

“Poppy was Montana, Mila was Montana’s mom, and I was Montana’s grandma – “

“And you were a smoker,” Kotb laughed.

“And I’d be like, ‘Come on, Montana, wash your hair!'” Bush Hager said, using the same gruff voice.

Kotb said that in order to get her own kids to eat, she would adopt a similar persona. “I would pretend like I was Mel at Mel’s Diner, I would be like, ‘What’s it gonna be kids?'” she said, using a thick New York accent, but she added that it helped get her kids to eat breakfast.

“Each of us have a 70-year old persona,” Bush Hager then realized. “I’m Montana’s grandmother— “

“And I’m Mel from Mel’s Diner!” Kotb finished.

Hey, whatever it takes to keep the kids entertained, right? (Important note to any readers for whom sitcoms of the late 1970s are a blind spot: Mel’s Diner is a reference to the sitcom Alice, which took place in a diner, just FYI. Hoda, thank you for educating your kids on the importance of classic TV.)

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