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Jenna Bush Hager says she was sent dirt so her kids could be born on Texas soil

The TV personality gave birth to all three of her three of her children in New York City.

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Published on September 15, 2023 07:36PM EDT

Everything's bigger in Texas — and that includes state pride.

Just ask native Texan and TV host Jenna Bush Hager, who revealed that she witnessed this pride firsthand when she was sent dirt to use during childbirth in New York so her three kids with husband Henry Hager could still be born on Texas soil.

During a segment Friday on Today With Hoda & Jenna, Hager, 41, and cohost Hoda Kotb, 59, were discussing a study about how the traditional American Southern accent is going away when Hager dropped the revelation.

"Somebody actually sent my mom Texas dirt to be put under the bed when I delivered my children so that they could be born on Texas soil in New York City," she said with a laugh.

"Your kids are always going to have Texas in them. That's where they go to summer camp," Kotb replied.

"And they do have Southern accents, because once I start to have a margarita and put on some Willie Nelson, I'm a whole new person," Hager added. (Though she calls New York home now, Hager spent most of her youth in Texas. The former first daughter was born to President George W. Bush and Laura Bush in Dallas. The family eventually moved to Austin, where she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.)

Hager then joked that to preserve a Texas accent in her children — Mila, 10, Poppy, 8, and Hal, 4 — she's going to "just put a little recording when they sleep, not in their ears because I'd hate to damage them, [that says] 'y'all, y'all, y'all.'"

The segment then devolved into an argument over whether or not Oklahoma counted as being part of the South or the Midwest. Watch a clip of the moment above.

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Jenna Bush Hager says she was sent dirt so her kids could be born on Texas soil

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