Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush’s new children’s book is all about the little joys in life shared between parents and their kids.
“One of the things that happens when you have children is it makes you reflect on your own parents and sort of what they’ve done for you; how they’ve supported us. And so, we just realized we have choices as parents and we can choose to see the world through our kids’ eyes and be present and have fun and be joyful, or we can make other choices,” Jenna, 43, exclusively told Us of the pair’s new book, I Loved You First, in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “And so, for us, this is a book about opening our eyes, choosing joy [and] finding the beauty and inspiration that our kids provide.”
Given that the book celebrates the love between a parent and a child, it was only fitting that the twin sisters dedicate it to their own parents, former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush.
“We realized they did that with us, and we feel so grateful for it,” Jenna told Us. Barbara, 43, went on to add, “There’s a lot of nature scenes throughout [the book]. The illustrator is an incredibly beautiful illustrator, and the nature very much is in honor of our mom and our mom’s mom who both really taught us to love nature and to stop and see the beauty around us. And so our mom really loves that as well.”
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Jenna is a mother of three, sharing Mila, 11, Poppy, 9, and Hal, 5, with her husband, Henry Hager. Barbara, meanwhile, shares her daughter, Cora Georgia 3, with her husband, Craig Coyne. She gave birth to the couple’s second child, son Edward, in August 2024.
Becoming parents is something Jenna told Us has only made her and Barbara, 43, closer. “Our relationship has stayed somewhat the same, which is that we’re just really, really close,” she shared. “And yes, we talk about our kids. They’ve given us more to talk about, but we talk about everything. And so, it’s like has it changed? In some ways, yes. But it’s also, I feel like when you’ve had a life partner and a twin, you sort of go back to the roles that you’ve always had.”
For Barbara, she felt like a “mom” to her sister’s children before welcoming her own. “Now that I’ve had kids, they’ve had a slumber party at my house, Mila and Poppy, and [have] helped me with my baby,” she shared. “And I still love having a relationship with them and having had the opportunity to have a relationship with them when I didn’t have kids in and my life wasn’t quite as busy.”
In addition to teaming up for their new children’s book, Barabara joined her sister on the small screen to cohost Today With Jenna & Friends on Monday, March 24, and Tuesday, March 25. “Everybody was recommending she do it,” Jenna, who formerly cohosted with Hoda Kotb before the Today co-anchor left the show in January, told Us.
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“And I think it really spoke to Hoda, how much Hoda and I loved being with each other, is that people, including my agent, called and was like, ‘Everybody thinks it should just be you and Barbara,’” she continued. ”Because nobody could really think of anybody besides Hoda that I would love to that extent, besides my twin sister.
Barbara, however, is not interested in filling the role full-time. “That is a no for me,” she quipped. “I’m flattered that anyone’s thought of it.”
Jenna has cohosted the fourth hour of Today with a variety of celebrity — and familial — guest hosts since Kotb’s departure. While the show’s hosting lineup may be booked through “the spring and early summer,” Jenna tells Us there’s no rush to find a permanent replacement for Kotb, 60.
“We’re just kind of living in the present,” she said. “I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen, when this will end and how it will end, and I’m kind of OK with that, which is really fun.”
I Loved You First is available now.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
