Jenna Bush Hager revealed that her seventh-grade boyfriend broke up with her after catching a glimpse of her in a swimsuit.
“It’s so interesting because people really do hit you right where it hurts,” the mom of three said during a three-minute confessional on Wednesday’s broadcast of the “Today” show.
“I had a boyfriend in seventh grade who broke up with me after we went swimming together,” she continued, “after he saw me in a bathing suit.”
The former first daughter, 41, wanted to illustrate the severity of body shaming and the long-term impact it can have on one’s psyche.
“I feel like even sometimes now when I feel great — I have three kids, three C-sections, I feel really in my body and I think of it as a beautiful thing — I’ll walk in a pool and have a moment,” she said.
Bush Hager — who shares daughters Mila, 9, and Poppy, 7, and son Hal, 3, with husband Henry Hager — added that the pain sustained from that moment has inspired her to raise her kids to be “loving” human beings.
“All we want is loving children. We don’t need the star kid, the this, the that. We want kids that are kind,” she said of her approach to parenting.
“The way you do that is model it.”
Bush Hager’s remarks came during a discussion with Hoda Kotb, during which the co-hosts shared their thoughts on Ariana Grande addressing recent comments made about her body.
The 29-year-old pop star, who rarely posts personal messages on social media, slammed internet trolls who claimed she is “too thin” and unhealthy in a now-viral TikTok video on Tuesday.
“The body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body,” Grande explained in part.
“I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly.”
The “God Is a Woman” singer elaborated, “[I was] at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that in fact wasn’t my healthy.”
