NEWSJenna Bush Hager Was 'Busted' by Mom Laura Bush in High School While Breaking Her 'Strict' Parents' Dating Rule
Jenna Bush Hager was caught by Laura Bush breaking an important dating rule.
Aug. 18 2026, Updated 4:33 p.m. ET
Jenna Bush Hager reflected on a moment when she was caught red-handed breaking one of the rules her parents set out about dating in high school.
The anchor opened up about her teenage antics growing up in former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush's Texas household on the Tuesday, August 18, episode of TODAY With Jenna and Sheinelle.
She explained to her co-host, Sheinelle Jones, that during her first year of high school, her parents told her she wasn't allowed to be picked up by a potential suitor for a date.
'No Car Dates'
Jenna Bush Hager was not allowed to have car dates when she was a freshman in high school.
"My freshman year, my parents said no car dates," she recalled. "My parents were kind of strict. For just a minute, they said no car dates."
Unfortunately for Laura and George, 15-year-old Jenna broke that rule "immediately" after kicking off her high school experience.
"And then I went to the football game with a boy, freshman year right away," the anchor explained. "I didn't drive with him. I got dropped off to meet him."
Laura Bush pulled up next to Jenna Bush Hager at a stoplight.
The high school couple quickly got antsy at the football game and decided to ditch the match.
"But then I got in his car to go around," she admitted. "I don't really remember. Maybe we were bored at the game and we were going to go get a bite to eat."
As they drove around her hometown of Austin, Tx., the couple pulled up to a stoplight and saw a familiar face.
"I got in the car, and I looked over at the red light, and my mom was sitting with my godmother and my godfather," Jenna revealed, much to Sheinelle's horror.
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'Busted!'
Jenna Bush Hager's mother taunted her when she found her breaking the rules.
Laura was all too eager to take the opportunity to taunt her teenage daughter for breaking one of her cardinal rules of high school dating.
"And they just rolled down the window and went 'Busted!'" Jenna exclaimed, as Sheinelle described the scene as something straight "out of a movie."
"Austin used to be that type of town," she added. "They were going out to dinner; it was like seven o'clock, and they rolled down the window, and I was like, 'Oh no.'"
Jenna Bush Hager questioned whether she should be more strict with the children she shares with Henry Hager.
Tales of her own teenage delinquency had Jenna reconsidering how lenient she should be on her own teenage daughter, just in case she inherits her mother's rebellious gene as she enters eighth grade.
The mom-of-three shares Mila, 13, Poppy, 11, and Hal, 7, with her husband Henry Hager.
"Maybe I should be stricter," she confessed.
