Jenna Bush Hageris working on setting boundaries when it comes to sharing stories about her kids.
While speaking with PEOPLE exclusively for this week’s cover story, theToday with Hoda & Jennashow co-host, 41, reflected on a story she shared about daughter Mila, 10, around this time two years ago. “I don’t worry about what I share about myself, because frankly, I am a pretty open book,” Bush Hager confirms.
“I think what I’ve tried to reign in a little and just be more cognizant of what I share of others, what I talk about or post when it comes to my kids,” she continues. “They didn’t choose this work.”
“Actually, thanks to PEOPLE, it helped put it into perspective because when Mila’s first year at camp, which was two years ago, I read one of her letters home,” Bush Hager says, revealing that after thestorywent viral, her daughter wasn’t too thrilled about what she had shared.
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“It was my choice to share it,” she tells PEOPLE. “And then Mila was embarrassed. She was like, ‘Why would you share that? Why would you do that? Don’t ever do that again.'”
“I think it was such a good lesson because it was such an innocuous, silly topic,” Bush Hager reflects. “But it helped me realize that sometimes sharing other people’s stories, if they don’t want them shared, is something I had to work on.”
Bush Hager shares her three kids — daughters Mila and Poppy, 8, plus son Hal, 4, — with husband Henry Chase Hager.
In July of 2021, Bush Hagershared on air that she had received the “saddest” letter from her then 8-year-old daughter, who was attending summer camp in Texas. Saying that the letter “broke my heart in a million pieces,” the co-host read the letter on the broadcast, causing the note to go viral afterward.
Although Mila eventually acclimated and grew to love her experience, Bush Hager said, “It broke both of our hearts, but I didn’t think that … I just put it out there. People would stop me on the street and be like, ‘When are you going to get Mila?’ I’m like, ‘I was just reading a letter!’ Then, the camp called, they felt really bad,” she said in a previous conversation with PEOPLE. “They were like, ‘Don’t worry, she’s happy.’ I was like, ‘No, it’s all okay.’ "
For more on Jenna Hager Bush, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribehere.
source: people.com
