Don’t expect George W. Bush to appear on “Today with Jenna & Friends” anytime soon.
On Wednesday’s episode of “Today,” Jenna Bush Hager’s co-host confronted her about why her father refuses to let her appear on the show, even though she flew to her native Texas to film.
“I’m sure he’ll still say no. He’ll say something like, ‘I don’t watch your shitty show,'” she admitted.
The co-hosts laughed at the comment, with Carson Daly saying, “That’s why we love him!”
“I actually asked him, he’s my father, so I might publicly ask him to come and be ‘friends,'” Hager confessed on Wednesday’s episode.
Her co-hosts noted that her father rarely appears on TV, but made a surprise appearance on Peyton and Eli Manning’s podcast, “The Manning Cast,” on Monday.
“Well, he said he was retired, so I was as surprised as anyone to see him on Monday night,” Hager, 43, said jokingly.
He was the one she called in tears after hearing the news that former co-host Hoda Kotb was leaving “Today” after 26 years at NBC, despite the former president’s backlash on his daughter’s talk show.
“So, I called him last night. At first he thought I was so emotional that something really bad had happened, like I had lost a loved one,” she tearfully recalled on a September 2024 episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna.
“And he said, ‘Oh, she’s leaving, it’s time, you’re okay. It’s your turn. It’s okay.'”
Kotb, 61, also cried, but stood up and applauded, assuring her that her father, now 79, was right.
The author also revealed that in 2019, when she was unsure whether to take up the co-hosting job, her father encouraged her to take on the co-hosting job.
“And I remember when you first started working with me, she called her father because you were scared,” Kotb recalled.
Hager said George was “happy” for her, but jokingly reminded her that NBC veteran Kotb is a “star.”
And while he may not be a guest on “Today with Jenna & Friends,” the politician has appeared on the “Today” show several times, most recently on “Hoda & Jenna” in 2021 to discuss immigration.
