Jenna Bush Hager broke down in tears Monday morning as she recalled moving out of her old family apartment and the pain she felt leaving the home where she had endured so many “hard things,” including the death of her grandparents.
During the latest episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna, Hoda Kotb confirmed that she and her two daughters, Haley and Hope, will be moving this week and that she was excited to leave her apartment in upper Manhattan because it’s the place where she “brought their babies home.” to.’
Jenna, 42, completely sympathized and spoke openly about the last time she moved with her husband Henry Hager and their three young children: ‘We moved two years ago and it was very difficult for me. It was very difficult, I didn’t expect it to be so difficult, but there was one night when we sat on our couch in the empty apartment, all of us, the family.
“We sat there and it was just this moment… my kids are so used to me showing emotions – I wonder what it will do to them, but I was crying because I thought the same thing, we brought our babies home to this place. Henry and I had overcome beautiful things and difficult things…’
Referring to the loss of her father’s parents, Barbara Pierce and George HW Bush, who died in April and November 2018 respectively, Jenna continued: “I lost my grandparents in that apartment, and my daughters drew stick figures and made me feel better,” before wiping away tears.
Jenna Bush Hager broke down in tears Monday as she recalled moving out of her old family apartment two years ago.
Both Jenna and her Today co-host Hoda Kotb cried when they opened the show.
‘What it does is clearly mark time. Normally you can’t think, ‘Oh my God, here we are, here I go,’ and that’s what he does,” the mother of three added as she tried to compose herself.
Hoda spoke openly: “We moved from an apartment to another place, and this weekend I realized…
“This morning I was literally sitting at my desk, where I sit every morning, lighting a candle, having my journal, doing my stuff, and I thought, ‘This is the last Monday I’ll be sitting at this desk,'” because we are moving this week.
‘I was thinking about it. Both Haley and Hope came home there, and I remember them trying to get up the stairs, and now I remember them running up and down.
“And I was thinking about the first time we brought them home and carried them up those stairs in the car seat and all the things that happened there… and I was watching old videos of them, when they were so little.
“It’s like you want to hold on to things and let them go, and when I saw these videos of them as kids, babies, I can’t believe I have two kids who are seven and five. And I can’t believe we have all those memories.
‘We had Christmas’ and Thanksgiving, there were so many things we built there and I know it’s just a place…’ Hoda added.
Referring to what Jenna had said about sitting on the couch in her empty apartment before she left, Hoda got teary-eyed and said, “I think that what you did, that it’s important and it’s something that I want too.” do, is take a second.
“Don’t run through it, don’t run through the transitions, don’t run through the endings and say, ‘We just wish it would go away.’ Sit down and take a minute and look around, like you guys did in that one.” sofa that day.
Jenna and her sister Barbara photographed with their grandfather and former President George HW Bush and his wife Barbara Pierce
Jenna and her husband Henry Hager moved into their current home two years ago with their three children Poppy, Mila and Hal.
Hoda and her two daughters Hope and Haley are moving out of their Manhattan apartment this week.
Her voice cracking again, Jenna replied, ‘And it’s going to hurt a little, but it’s okay.’ Because it hurts because it was so beautiful, because all your dreams came true in that place.’
Trying to downplay the emotional moment, he shouted: ‘What’s going on, all of you?! It’s Monday, but we’ve already had it! We just had it!’
Hoda and Jenna are no strangers to emoting live, and three months ago, the 59-year-old broke down in tears when speaking about her youngest daughter Hope’s terrifying health scare.
Hope, now five years old, spent time in the hospital and ICU in February 2023 due to an undisclosed health issue.