Jenna Bush Hager seemed delighted to co-host "Jenna & Friends" with her "Sissy," Barbara Pierce Bush — and they welcomed a very special guest. Because the fraternal twins wrote a new children's book together called "I Loved You First," they decided to chat with the woman who loved them first, former first lady Laura Bush. After raising her twin daughters, Laura and her husband George W. Bush now have a whole new generation of grandkids to love.
One of them, Barbara's oldest child Cora, told her mom that her dream was to "move next door to Grammy and Jefe." (Jefe, or "chief" in Spanish, is their name for grandpa George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States.) "I’m thrilled to have grandchildren," Laura said with a laugh. "For one thing, we can be with them, we can play with them, and then we can send them all back to y’all."
"One of the things that’s been so fun is to watch you become a grandma," Jenna said. Laura and her husband, former president George W. Bush, now have five grandchildren: Jenna's three children with Henry Hager (Mila, Poppy, and Hal) and Barbara's two children with Craig Louis Coyne (Cora and Edward). The sisters say that their new book is an ode to nature ... and their mother.
"Y’all remember Daddy reading to you?" Laura asked her daughters. "I loved books and I loved reading, which is why it’s so important to read to your children. I made my whole career out of it." Jenna said that librarians, authors, and readers often tell her, "'Your mom has been the most influential first lady. She’s inspired me.'" She added, "It matters because sometimes librarians aren’t taken seriously."
"Librarians just say, 'Shhh!'" Laura said with a laugh. "You gave your love of reading to so many other people," said Barbara. Talking with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin on March 25, Barbara said, "Our parents are such present grandparents. My daughter has a hilarious relationship with our dad, her Jefe. She is his number one fan, so if he's ever having a bad day, he should just call her because she'll laugh at anything he says." She added that her parents are "super goofy and sweet" with her kids. "Mila said yesterday, 'Jefe does everything I ask.' Nobody has ever said that before," Jenna joked. To prove her point, Mila told her mom that she asked Jefe to paint a picture of her cat and her grandfather agreed immediately.
Jenna and Barbara sweetly paid tribute to their parents in the dedication of their book: “For our parents who taught us how to love, and for our children who showed us how much we could.”
Laura Bush, 78, gave an interview with her daughters Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush on 2025-03-25. Jenna and Barbara Bush read excerpts from their new jointly written picture book, "I Loved You First," which celebrates the bond between parents and children.
“Daddy and I did love you first,” Laura Bush told her daughters, growing tearful. She and husband former president George W. Bush are grandparents to Jenna's three children, Margaret Laura "Mila" Hager, 11, Poppy Louise Hager, 9, and Henry Harold "Hal" Hager, 5, as well as Barbara Bush’s daughter and son, Cora Georgia Coyne, 3, and Edward Finn Coyne, who was born in August 2024.
“They love their Grammy,” Barbara Bush told her mom. “Cora Georgia said she wants to move next door to Grammy and Jefe,” she added, referring to the kids' nickname, which means “boss” in Spanish, for the former president. Barbara Bush also shared her gratitude with her mom for instilling a love of reading from a young age. “I have so many memories of being cuddled in bed with you and Dad reading. And then on the weekends, Jenna and I would come climb in bed with you in the morning, and y’all would be reading the newspaper, and we would bring books,” she said.
Laura Bush also reflected on what it was like to raise her daughters, describing her happiness when she learned she was having twins. “We were so thrilled to get two of you at once,” she said. “Especially, I thought, because since I was an only child, for you to have each other.”
“But sometimes we were wild,” Jenna chimed in. “Well, you were always wild,” her mom replied, adding to Jenna, “You were the wildest.” Laura Bush said that having twins taught her to be “very patient” and understanding. “We didn’t expect y’all to be perfect,” she said.
The grandmother of five also opened up about the joys of seeing both her daughters become moms. “It’s been really fun to see both of you do it. Of course, I knew you would both be great mothers,” she said. Jenna Bush Hager is co-hosting "Jenna & Friends" with family members. Jenna and Barbara are celebrating the release of their fifth book together, "I Loved You First." The thoughtful book illustrates a parent's love for their child through shared experiences like counting constellations, dancing in the rain, and hiking outdoors.
Jenna Bush Hager says "I Loved You First" is "about what it feels like to be a parent and how adored our children are from the very beginning." A tour to promote the children's book kicks off Tuesday, 2025-03-25, in Madison, Connecticut, and wraps Sunday, 2025-03-30, in Fort Worth, Texas.
What's really fun is that readers will come and they'll tell us what they loved about the last book, Pierce Bush says, which serves as inspiration for their next ideas. The Bush sisters are also co-founders of a nonprofit that addresses global health challenges. “It’s unusual to have such public parents or to mourn publicly when we lost our grandparents,” Pierce Bush said. “But then we meet people who have their own personal stories about them. I still feel now, even though our grandparents have been dead a few years, (that) we're still discovering who they are because people will come to our book event and have an anecdote about meeting them.”
As for the sisters' parents, former President Bush has taken up painting as a hobby and has released two books filled with his work. However, he has yet to contribute to any of his daughters' projects, although the interest is there. "Talk to us in the future," Pierce Bush teases. The Bush sisters aren’t ruling out working on a project together.
Reflecting on their childhood, Jenna and Barbara stressed the importance of ensuring their children feel as important as they did, while navigating parenting in a digital age. Between them, they have five children ranging from 7 months to 11 years old.
“I just want them to know I’m fully present with them,” Pierce Bush said. Jenna Bush Hager is strict about her daughter’s screen time, remembering how their mother, Laura, never kept junk food in the house. “My daughter is in sixth grade; most of her friends have cell phones. She does not; she uses my old iPad to text with her friends,” she shared. “Through co-authoring another children’s book, the sisters hope they'll give readers a reason to ditch their screens and instead appreciate the world through their children's eyes.”
