Jenna Bush Hager Reveals She Told Her Husband To “Tranquilize” Her Because She Was “So Excited” About Getting Her “Dream Job” On ‘Today’

Jenna Bush Hager landed her “dream job” on Today With Hoda & Jenna in 2019 after she had been working as a teacher and an NBC correspondent for years. But she recently recalled the exact moment that had her “freaking out” about getting the job.

After her Today co-host Hoda Kotb asked what her “dream job” was, Bush Hager confessed, “Well, I mean teaching was my dream job. But also, in this work, it’s this.”

She continued, “I remember the night before I had this, they put up our Instagram page. The night before, they put me in the picture on the Instagram. I was ready to go to bed and I was pretty chill and I saw that. I was like ‘Henry, I am freaking out, you’re gonna have to tranquilize me. I’m never going to be able to sleep tonight.'”

She said she felt “so excited” about finally having the job. “There is something so fun about having that excitement,” Bush Hager said.

Bush Hager joined the fourth hour of Today after Kathie Lee Gifford stepped down in 2019.

Kotb, on the other hand, has been at NBC since she was hired as an anchor on Dateline in 1998.

She recounted the “beautiful moment” she shared with her mother after she was hired on Dateline.

“I couldn’t believe I’d gotten it, I was so numb from trying and begging and then I finally got it,” she recalled.

She said she called her mother, who was at work at the time. “My mom stood up in her cubicle at the Library Of Congress where she sat for 30-plus years and I could hear, ‘Hey, everyone my daughter’s a correspondent for Dateline NBC,” Kotb recalled. She said she could hear her mother’s coworkers “all clapping” at the news.

“I remember it so clearly, it was such a beautiful moment,” she said.

The touching memories were clearly making both Today hosts feel emotional.

“I want to weep,” Bush Hager confessed through tears.

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