Jenna Bush Hager has opened up about how Ellen DeGeneres made her call her dad, former President George W. Bush, at the White House while she was on her talk show, saying she was ‘scared’ he would say ‘something inappropriate.’
The Today host, 40, was discussing the final episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show with Hoda Kotb on Friday when she recalled her own nerve-wracking sit-down with the comedian in 2007.
‘When I was on [the show], she said, “So, How do you call your dad?” My dad was President,’ Bush Hager explained. ‘I said, “What do you mean?” I just call him.” She goes, “OK.”‘
Jenna Bush Hager, 40, opened up about her 2007 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Friday, the day after the comedian hosted her final episode of the daytime series
She explained that DeGeneres had pulled out an ‘old-school telephone’ and asked her to call her dad, then-President George W. Bush, at the White House
She described how DeGeneres then pulled out an ‘old-school telephone’ and put her on the spot in front of the studio audience.
‘She said, “So, you just call straight to the White House?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “OK, Let’s do it.” I was freaking!’ Bush Hager explained.
‘Did you feel like you should?’ Kotb asked.
‘No, I was scared. She made me,’ she admitted. ‘What if he said something inappropriate?’
The former first daughter was particularly worried that her father wouldn’t know who DeGeneres was when she told him she was on the show.
Bush Hager admitted she was ‘freaking’ because she was worried her father would say ‘something inappropriate’ in front of the studio audience
A clip from the interview showed how Bush Hager was visibly nervous when DeGeneres grabbed the phone and encouraged her to call her dad.
‘He’s gonna kill me though,’ she told the talk show host. ‘You think I’m allowed to do this?’
‘Why not? You’re his daughter,’ DeGeneres replied.
Bush Hager called her mother’s line first, and when her assistant picked up the phone, she blurted out that she was on The Ellen Show.
She was then transferred to her mother, then-First Lady Laura Bush, and chatted with her briefly before her father was put on the line.
The former first daughter was visibly nervous when DeGeneres pulled out the phone and encouraged her to call her dad
‘He’s gonna kill me though,’ Bush Hager said, but her fears were unfounded. President Bush was happy to chat with her on the show and asked DeGeneres, ‘How’s my little girl doing?’
While Bush Hager kept insisting she was going to get in trouble, her fears were unfounded. Her father was happy to talk to her.
‘How’s my little girl doing?’ he asked DeGeneres.
‘Dad, are you mad?’ Bush Hager asked.
‘No, not at all,’ he insisted. ‘I’m ready to talk to you. I’m ready to talk to Ellen.’
Looking back on the moment, Bush Hager explained to Kotb that DeGeneres had a way of pulling off these types of pranks that felt fun.
‘She could do that. You know what I mean? Like, she could surprise people and it didn’t feel mean,’ she said. ‘But I was very scared.’
Bush Hager (pictured with her father on the Today show last year) noted that DeGeneres was able to surprise people on her show in a way that ‘didn’t feel mean’
In 2019, DeGeneres publicly defended her unlike friendship with former President Bush on her talk show after she came under fire for sitting next to him at a Dallas Cowboys game (pictured)
More than a decade after Bush Hager’s appearance on the show, DeGeneres publicly defended her unlikely friendship with former President Bush.
The comedian came under fire for chatting and laughing with the Republican leader at a Dallas Cowboys football game in 2019 and addressed the controversy on her show.
‘People were upset. They thought, “Why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?”‘ she said. ‘Here’s the thing: I’m friends with George Bush. In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have.’
DeGeneres noted that ‘we’re all different’ and it’s ‘OK that we’re all different.’
‘Here’s the thing: I’m friends with George Bush,’ she said. ‘In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have’
DeGeneres explained she and her wife, Portia de Rossi (left), were invited to the game by Charlotte Jones, daughter of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and sat next to the Bushes (right)
Bush Hager weighed in on the backlash on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in early 2020, saying she thinks ‘people can have different beliefs and still be friends’
‘Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them,’ she added.
‘When I say be kind to one another, I don’t mean only the people that think the same way you do. I mean be kind to everyone.’
Bush Hager later weighed in on the backlash during an appearance on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in February 2020.
‘I had just had a baby, so to be totally honest, I didn’t pay that much attention to it,’ admitted the mom, who welcomed her third child, Hal, in August 2019. ‘But I do think that people can have different beliefs and still be friends.’
She went on to add that she also thinks ‘decency and humanity should be at the basis of all conversations.’
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