Jenna Bush Hager Says Her Grandparents Convinced Her to Take Her ‘Today’ Job

Jenna Bush Hager may have never become one of morning TV’s most recognizable faces if not for her famous grandparents.

“Have you ever had a moment where somebody’s reaction caused you to say, ‘OK, yeah. This is what I want to do,’ or the affirmation that you needed?” Sheinelle Jones asked Bush Hager on the Thursday, May 21, episode of Today With Jenna & Sheinelle. Bush Hager responded by recalling when she was first approached about joining the NBC morning show.

“When I got offered to work at the Today show, I was a teacher, and I loved it,” she shared. “And so, for years, I said no to even taking a meeting. I was like, ‘No, no. I’m working. I really like my job. No, thank you.’ And finally, because teaching in our marginalized areas is so hard, I was thinking of taking the meeting.”

Bush Hager noted that she mentioned Today‘s interest in her while spending a summer with her grandparents, the late former President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush. “I said, ‘You know, the Today show keeps calling and asking me to take the meeting,’” she stated. “And my grandmother said, ‘You always take the meeting. I don’t know why you’ve said no for two years, but you always go take that meeting.’”

Bush Hager said her grandmother’s advice made her realize she was wrong to turn down a meeting with the show. “My grandpa goes, ‘Do you watch it?’ I go, ‘No. I go to school at 6:30 in the morning.’ He said, ‘Let’s watch it,’ and the three of us sat and watched it together,” she added.

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Bush Hager worked as a teacher in Washington, D.C., for several years before joining Today as a correspondent in 2009. Ten years later, she took over for Kathie Lee Gifford as Hoda Kotb‘s co-host on the fourth hour of Today. She led the show with celebrity guest hosts (Today With Jenna & Friends) for a year following Kotb’s January 2025 Today exit. Jones officially took over as Bush Hager’s permanent co-host in January.

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Jones, for her part, went on to share her own story of how her late grandmother, Josephine Vonceal Pace Brown, encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming a news anchor. “I was in fifth grade, and I told my grandmother, at first I told her I wanted to be a beautician. And she was like, ‘Oh, that would be good.’ And then, I told her I wanted to be a fashion coordinator, and she was like, ‘Oh, that would be good,’” she recalled. “And then, I remember telling Grandmama, ‘I think I want to be a news anchor.’ And she goes, ‘Ooh!’ I will never forget it.”

Jones continued, “She lit up, and then, she asked me, ‘If you wanted to be a news reporter, what would you need to do?’ And I was like, ‘Well, read magazines, read newspapers, ask questions, be curious,’ all the things. But I remember her being so excited about it that I just kept saying I wanted to be a news anchor.”

 

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Bush Hager went on to tell her co-host, “She probably saw that in you. She probably knew you were curious and would be good at it. I love that.” Jones wrapped up the discussion by telling viewers, “When someone tells you something, be affirmative.”

Today With Jenna & Sheinelle, Weekdays, 10 am, NBC