Jenna Bush Hager called out “Today” producers for seemingly “shaming” her and her twin sister, Barbara Bush, over their 2001 underage drinking bust.
During Thursday’s episode, Barbara — who was filling in for Hoda Kotb — and Jenna played a game called “First Loves.”
However, the 41-year-old sisters were left stunned mid-way through the game when they were asked about their “first cocktail.”
“I think they are trying to shame us with our underage drinking, minor in possession of alcohol,” Jenna said. “I think this is shame coming from my own team.”
“That was rude,” Barbara agreed.
Despite the shade being thrown their way, the two still answered the question, revealing their drink of choice at the time was a “wine cooler” or “natty light” — aka Natural Light beer.
Just a few months after their dad, George W. Bush, took office in the early 2000s, the then-teenagers got in trouble for possession of alcohol and using a fake ID while at the University of Texas.
Despite the run-in with the law making headlines, Bush Hager revealed in 2022 that her famous father had a surprising reaction to their “stupid” choices at the time.
“I mean we embarrassed them — although they never said it — on the world stage,” she explained on “Today with Hoda & Jenna.” “We got in trouble with the law as freshman in college by ordering a margarita at a restaurant called Chuy’s.”
“Barbara and I … were like 19 and a half, maybe 20, close enough but not allowed [to drink],” she continued.
Yet she accredits their boldness to their parents allowing them to act like “normal” teenagers despite their public-facing life.
“When I called my dad to say, ‘I’m really sorry’ … he said, ‘No, I’m sorry,'” Jenna explained. “He said, ‘I’m sorry, I told you that you can be normal, and you can’t. You can’t order margaritas.'”
A few years prior, Jenna — who recently got together with her sister and parents for the first time in “a decade” — praised her mom and dad for giving her a “chance to fail” while growing up.
“While we were growing up, I for one had parents that let us fail, let us fall and publicly,” she told Kotb. “And I always say to them now, ‘How brave of you,’ because it didn’t reflect great on them, either.”
