Jenna Bush Hager yearned for a touch more life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness during her college days. The former first daughter revealed a hilarious anecdote from her time at the University of Texas at Austin during her father, George W. Bush's first term as president.
"I would be kind of embarrassed—and I hesitate even saying this," Jenna confessed on the October 23 episode of Today. "But I dated a football player at Texas for a brief time. And I was embarrassed that the Secret Service would know that." The 43-year-old added with a chuckle, "I don't know why, but I was."
As she pondered the memory, the daytime personality shared with guest co-host Savannah Guthrie, "I just didn't want them to know I had a new boyfriend because senior year was active for me." As Savannah joked about "lots of walks of shame," Jenna quipped with a laugh, "Lots of them."
"So I had my friends sneak me," Jenna recalled. "I was in the back of the car and they snuck me past the Secret Service." She was shocked to finally admit the truth all these years later, saying, "I've never admitted this."
Savannah, meanwhile, was delighted to learn one of her best friend's secrets. "Wait a minute. You snuck out from the Secret Service?" the 53-year-old exclaimed. "So they thought you were at home in bed reading the Bible or whatever and you were at the football player's house?"
As Jenna nodded in agreement, Savannah held up her hand for a high five, saying, "Put it right here. That's my girl."
But Jenna didn't make a habit of evading the Secret Service. "It was only time I escaped them," she shared, "and then we broke up soon after."
Jenna—now married to Henry Hager and sharing children Mila, 12, Poppy, 10, and Hal, 6—has been candid about the challenges of life in the public eye. As her father's presidency meant she even needed a Secret Service alias as a teen, she admitted on Today in September with a wry smile that she was ready to "declassify" the information.
"My name was Holly Crawford," she shared. "I know, Holly sounds like a good time, doesn't she?" While she didn't come up with the name, she did have an idea as to where it might have come from. "Crawford was the name of where we would go—or where my parents had the house," she explained. "But also: holly, bush. You know, Holly, like holly." "I mean I don't know, I just made it up," she said with a laugh. "But all I know is that if Holly Crawford shows up, she's ready to order a margarita."
