Jenna Bush Hager hates being told she looks like her dad, George W. Bush.
The “Today” show co-host called out the comparisons Monday when Sheinelle Jones claimed the father-daughter duo “look just alike” in footage of Hager interviewing her dad and fellow former presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton for the History Channel.
“I know everybody says it, but dang,” Jones, 48, quipped.
While Hager said she “appreciate[d]” the remark, the 44-year-old noted, “Sometimes that’s not a compliment.”
As the NBC production team laughed off-camera, Bush Hager continued, “I think my dad’s handsome, but when people say that, I’m like, ‘I look like a man?’”
Jones pointed out that sometimes kids want to look like their dads to prove they’re related.
“OK, yeah, my dad is my father,” Hager replied.
She went on to discuss her experience interviewing the 79-year-old, who “likes to make funny jokes.”
“He … started talking about when I got a minor in possession of alcohol, and I’m like, ‘Hey, Dad. That’s not what we’re talking about here, bro. Roll it back,’” Hager recalled, referring to her two underage drinking busts.
Hager was 19 when her father became president in January 2001. His second term ended in 2009.
The journalist often talks about her dad on air since joining the “Today” show full-time in 2019.
In September 2024, she described calling the former president in tears over news that her then-co-host, Hoda Kotb, was leaving the show after 26 years with NBC.
Bush, at the time, told his daughter Kotb was the “star” of the show.
In November of the following year, Hager admitted her famous father has outright stated he doesn’t “watch [her] dumb show.”
The politician has, notably, made several appearances on the “Today” show over the years, most recently joining his daughter at Studio 1A in 2021.
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