Jenna Bush Hager hates people saying she looks like her father, George W. Bush.
The “Today” co-hosts slammed the comparisons on Monday, when Shinelle Jones claimed the father-daughter duo “look exactly alike” in a video of Hager interviewing her father and fellow former presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton on the History Channel.
Jones, 48, quipped: “I know people say that, but it’s ridiculous.”
Hager said she “appreciated” the comment, but the 44-year-old added, “Sometimes it’s not a compliment.”
As the NBC production team laughed off camera, Bush Hager continued, “I think my dad is handsome, but when people say that, I’m like, ‘Do I look like a man?'”
Jones pointed out that children sometimes want to look like their fathers to prove their relationship.
“Okay, yeah, my dad is my dad,” Hager replied.
She went on to talk about her experience interviewing a 79-year-old man who “likes to tell funny jokes.”
“He…started telling me about the time I let an underage drink, and I was like, ‘Hey, Dad. That’s not what we’re talking about here, brother. Please take it back,'” Hager recalled, referring to her two underage drinking arrests.
Mr. Hager was 19 years old when his father became president in January 2001. His second term ended in 2009.
The journalist has frequently talked about his father on air since joining the “Today” show full-time in 2019.
In September 2024, she said she called the former president in tears after hearing the news that her then-co-host Hoda Kotb was leaving the show after 26 years on NBC.
At the time, President Bush said his daughter Kotb was the “star” of the show.
The following November, Hager acknowledged that her famous father had made it clear that he “wouldn’t watch[her]stupid shows.”
Notably, the politician has appeared on the “Today” show several times over the years, most recently appearing on Studio 1A with his daughter in 2021.
