Jenna Bush Hager shared the heartbreaking letter her homesick daughter Mila sent her from sleepaway camp, where she is staying for a total of three weeks, saying her husband Henry Hager actually considered picking her up that night.
On Wednesday’s show, the Today star, 39, opened up about the short yet emotional message she received from her eight-year-old daughter, who wanted to know when she was going to be able to go home.
‘I got a letter last night that reminded me of a letter that I would write, and it broke my heart in a million pieces,’ she told her co-host Hoda Kotb.
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So sweet: Jenna Bush Hager shared the heartbreaking letter her eight-year-old daughter Mila sent from sleepaway camp on the Today show Wednesday
Hard to handle: ‘P.S. Daddy, how much longer ’til you pick me up? I miss you too much. I need to stop crying. So goodbye. I miss you terribly, Mom and Dad,’ Mila wrote
Jenna, who is also mom to five-year-old Poppy and 23-month-old Hal, then gave a dramatic reading of Mila’s letter from camp.
‘Dear Mom and Dad, I miss you. I wish I could be with you,’ she read. ‘P.S. Daddy, how much longer ’til you pick me up? I miss you too much. I need to stop crying. So goodbye. I miss you terribly, Mom and Dad.’
Jenna said she was so touched by the message that she took a picture of it and sent it to her parents, former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
She admitted that her husband was ready to drive to camp — the same one Jenna attended as a child — and get their homesick daughter.
‘Isn’t that the saddest?’ Jenna admitted to her co-host Hoda Kotg that her husband Henry Hager actually considered picking Mila up that night
Like mother, like daughter: Jenna assured her husband that their daughter was ‘fine,’ but she noted that the letter was something she would have written at that age
‘Henry goes, “Should we just go? Should I just go get her?”‘ she recalled. ‘I was like, “No, she’s fine.”
‘But isn’t that the saddest?’
Earlier this month, Jenna opened up about dropping Mila off at camp, saying they were both close to tears when they said goodbye.
‘She was like, “Don’t cry, Mommy,” and I said, “I’m not going to cry,” I had on my sunglasses,’ the former first daughter said, tearing up while recounting the emotional moment.
Looking back: Jenna attended the same sleepaway camp when she was a child and felt nostalgic when they dropped Mila off
Emotional moment: Jenna said she and Mila were both close to tears when they said goodbye earlier this month
Party of five: Jenna and Henry are also parents to a five-year-old daughter, Poppy, and 23-month-old son, Hal
‘There was something about it because it’s the camp I went to as a little girl, so there was this nostalgia,’ she explained. ‘Also, I got out of the car and she said, “Mommy, I have sunscreen in my eyes.” But I knew she didn’t have sunscreen in her eyes.
‘It was just this feeling of like… she’s old! How is she old enough to go away from me for three weeks?’
After she dropped Mila off at camp, Jenna shared snapshots of her family enjoying the summer, including a picture of herself hugging her oldest daughter in front of a wall that had ‘I love you so much’ spray-painted across it.
‘Photo dump: LOVING summer so very much,’ she captioned the images.