‘Today’: Jenna Bush Hager Reads Her Hilarious High School Note to a Friend

Jenna Bush Hager took a fun trip down memory lane on the Friday, June 26, episode of Today With Jenna & Sheinelle.

At the top of the show, Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones discussed how several schools across the country are switching back to having students use pens and paper for assignments rather than tech. “My little guy sometimes, he would be writing a paper and he’s talking into the phone,” Jones stated. “And I’m like ‘What are you doing?’ He’s like, ‘I’m working on my paper.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, no. We are not talking into a phone.’” (Jones shares her three kids — Kayin, Clara, and Uche — with her late husband, Uche Ojeh.)

Bush Hager, for her part, noted that handwriting will help prevent students from using AI to complete assignments. “You know what the kids were missing when they didn’t have pen and paper? They couldn’t write their bestie a note,” she added. “My best high school friend, this week, sent me a note that I wrote to her junior year in high school. We crossed out some controversial names. We protected the innocent, which I think is so great.”

Bush Hager wrote the letter to her friend Jessie, adding that the two called themselves “Jen and Juice” back in the day. Bush Hager said she did an “interpretive reading” of the note for her eldest daughter, Mila, and her husband, Henry Hager, but they weren’t impressed. (The couple shares three kids, including daughter Poppy and son Hal.)

She went on to read “highlights” of the letter to Jones on the show: “’Juice, what’s up? Well, I’m excited for this weekend, too.’ See what I’m doing? I’m writing her back. … I said, ‘What happens if we don’t beat the sophomores? That would seriously suck!’”

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Getting into the “juicy” part of the letter, Bush Hager shared, “[I wrote,] ‘What are we gonna do before the game? My parents are going out of town this weekend, but my grandma is coming to town. That really blows!’ Sorry, Grandma! You can tell I was 17 because now, I would love a night with my grandma. May she rest in peace. Sorry. I hope she’s not looking down, ashamed.” (Bush Hager is the daughter of former president George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, and is the granddaughter of the late former President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush.)

In the note, Bush Hager said she got into a “huge fight” with her parents and declared that she would spend the night at someone else’s house that Friday. She went on to ask Jessie if anyone else’s parents were heading out of town so they could hang out.

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Bush Hager’s note later took a romantic turn, as she opened up about her standing with her crush at the time. “I said, ‘Blake, I don’t know. I’m pretty sure he just wants a week break. I don’t know what I want,’” she read to Jones. “And then, I said, ‘P.S. I didn’t see you after third [period], so I’m finishing. I kind of miss Blake. I don’t know, though. When we talked, we decided we would take [a] one-week break and we would go [out] Sunday night and re-evaluate.’”

Bush Hager joked that her teenage self was “so dramatic,” while Jones said she used to share her co-host’s love of house parties. “House parties were so fun. And I think I thought my parents were going out of town, and I was gonna get one. And then, they were like, ‘No. Grandma’s coming to town,’” Bush Hager quipped.

She wrapped up the conversation by joking, “Let’s just hope my kids are better behaved than I am.”

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