April 29, 2025
Jenna Bush Hager’s daughter wanted to be there for her brother.
Conversing with guest co-host Tina Fey on the Tuesday, April 29th episode of Today with Jenna & Friends, the 43-year-old American author and journalist reflected on a recent event that happened at her house after she could not attend her son Hal’s play.
Hager said, “You work hard, work is a passion. I only ask this because I've been kind of going through this right now. I've been traveling for work. And my kids, my daughter cried last night when I got home. She was like, “You missed Hal's play!’”
The mother of three went on to ask, “And I already felt terrible about missing Hal's play. Did your kids ever show any of that? I need some therapy, as you can tell.”
Fey, the 54-year-old American actress and comedian, quipped she had faced something similar and shared the valuable advice she received.
She recalled, “When my daughter was young was when we were making 30 Rock and I was working really, really hard, a lot, and someone gave me the advice of, it's not good for women to pretend that you don't like your work.”
The Four Seasons star, who shares two daughters with husband Jeff Richmond, explained, “You don't want to be like, 'Oh, Mommy hates going to work, it's so bad.' If you like your job, you like your job.”
"But yeah, I definitely cried a lot when my daughter was younger... you miss some things. But they know that you're there for them as much as you absolutely can be,” Fey stated.
"And they've turned out okay," Hager noted ahead of Fey’s response, "They've turned out okay. So far, so good."
It is pertinent to mention that other than Hal, Jenna Bush Hager is also the mother of two daughters, Poppy and Mila.
Notably she shares all three of her children with husband Henry Hager.