Jenna Bush Hager's presentation at The Woman's Club has been postponed to a later date, to be announced.
Photo courtesy Jenna Bush Hager
Jenna Bush Hager enjoys her visits to Richmond.
The co-host of “Today With Hoda & Jenna” is connected to the city through her husband, Henry, who grew up in Richmond with his parents, Margaret and John H. Hager.
One of two daughters of former President George W. and Laura Bush, Hager will be in town this weekend, with her husband and their children — Mila, Poppy and baby Hal — to celebrate the Easter holiday with her mother-in-law and to speak at a members-only event at The Woman’s Club on Friday evening.
Hager’s only visit to Richmond with her family during the pandemic was in August 2020 for the funeral of John Hager, Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 1997 to 2001. Later, John Hager served in George W. Bush’s administration as assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services.
“It’s been so long since we’ve been [in Richmond],” Hager says, adding that her family is “outdoors constantly” when in town, taking advantage of Maymont, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the city’s lively food scene alongside family dinners and gatherings.
“There are such good restaurants,” Hager says, naming Can Can Brasserie and the Quirk Hotel’s rooftop as two favorite destinations.
When Hager addresses The Woman’s Club Friday, she’ll be talking about her latest book, “Everything Is Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and Loss.” The book is a memoir of Hager’s four grandparents: Harold and Jenna Welch, and President George H.W. and Barbara Bush. Harold Welch died in 1995, when Hager was a teenager; the others died more recently, over 13 months: Barbara Bush on April 17, 2018; George H.W. Bush on Nov. 30, 2018; and Jenna Welch on May 10, 2019.
In the book, Hager reflects on the influence all her grandparents had on her life, pointing in particular to the letters her Bush grandparents — known to her as Ganny and Gampy — wrote to her and her twin sister, Barbara, several of which are published in the book. Those notes kept her busy grandparents connected to Hager and her sister, she says.
“My Ganny and Gampy worked hard to make sure people wanted to be around them,” she says. “They wrote us letters, and when we were there, they put their work away.”
Hager says she’s impressed by how her "Today" show colleague, Hoda Kotb, leaves notes daily for her young daughters. “Because of our schedule, we’re not with [our children] in the mornings,” Hager notes. “Talking about this book reminds me I should be writing more. Beautiful, heartfelt letters are so meaningful.”
Hager says the everyday tone of the book reflects the no-nonsense family in which she and her sister were raised. They lived in west Texas until they were 5 years old and attended public school through high school. For college, which they entered as their father became president, the girls separated, with Jenna going to the University of Texas at Austin and Barbara heading to Yale, her father’s alma mater. Growing up, Hager says their lives “revolved as much around Mom’s parents as well as my other grandparents,” but she singled out President George H.W. Bush for teaching by example.
“My Gampy in particular was extremely humble,” she says. “He didn’t act more important than anybody he spoke to. He was always present for us and made time for us. That’s what we saw.”
Now, Hager says, when she and her sister are together, they are often told how “normal” they seem to be. “You sort of want to hear that you’re extraordinary or smart,” she says, laughing. “But we did have a normal childhood.”
Her life now is less normal, given her television role. But she says she strives to be less like grandmother Barbara Bush — known in the family as “the enforcer” for her directness — and more like her mother, who she says is always considerate of others’ feelings and reactions to what she might say.
“Those of us on TV, we have to think about how much of ourselves [to] share and try not to share other people’s stories,” she says. She points to how, in the book, the recollections included about her sister’s wedding were all from her perspective. When asked if her sister Barbara ever calls her to express frustration over something Hager has said on the morning show, Hager laughs. “She doesn’t watch,” Hager says.
One of the memories included in the book involving her namesake grandmother, Jenna Welch, is how she taught her granddaughters the constellations, easily visible in the wide expanse of Texas sky. At the start of the pandemic, Hager says, she took her daughters out late one night to lay in the grass and contemplate the moon.
“In the depths of 2020, we were together a lot; time just seemed to slow down,” Hager says. “This book was written before the pandemic, but it’s all about grief. The title comes from [the Bible book of] Ecclesiastes, about how in even the saddest moments, there’s beauty. My goal for myself and my family was how to find joy even in the grief. Pay attention to the beautiful moments; they are there.”
The book is also a celebration of family, which Hager first wrote about with her sister in the 2017 book “Sisters First.” Hager says there were times on that earlier book tour when readers commented that they couldn’t always relate, because they didn’t have sisters themselves. With this book, she acknowledges that not everyone has a happy family. There are ways around both, Hager says.
“Create the family you don’t have,” she says. “Reach out to family members if there’s still love there; it’s never too late. When I talk about sisterhood, it includes the women I work with, who pick up my kids from the bus stop if I need them to, and who will listen to me about issues I have and if I’m doing okay,” she says.
“If you want love, community, family, build it,” she adds. “It takes work.”