NEWSJenna Bush Hager Tearfully Reveals She Couldn't Get in Touch With Dad George W. Bush 'All Day' on 9/11: 'I Didn't Know That He Was Okay'
Jenna Bush Hager recalled being unable to speak with George W. Bush on 9/11.
Sept. 11 2026, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
Jenna Bush Hager couldn't get in touch with her dad after the planes hit the Twin Towers 25 years ago.
The anchor opened up on TODAY With Jenna and Sheinelle about where she was on September 11, 2001, several months after George W. Bush took office for his first term as president.
"I was in Texas. I was a college student," she reflected, noting she had just begun her sophomore year at the University of Texas at Austin.
Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones discussed where they were on 9/11.
Her co-host, Sheinelle Jones, asked if the anchor had to be "rushed somewhere" by the Secret Service in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
"Yeah," she confirmed. "The other thing is, we were thinking about the people who lost family members. The people who went to work."
"It was a beautiful day," she added. "And people went to work and they never came home."
'I Didn't Know That My Dad Was Okay'
Jenna Bush Hager's father, George W. Bush, was elected president several months prior.
The former president's daughter admitted that she was afraid her father would end up being one of those people.
"Obviously, it was sort of before the cell phone. We didn't have cell phones like this. We had Nokias," she recalled. "So I didn't speak to my parents all day."
"I didn't know that my dad was okay," she remembered, getting emotional. "He was flying around the country."
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'This Is the Luckiest'
Jenna Bugh Hager was 'relieved' when she finally heard from her parents.
The anchor was "relieved" when she was finally able to connect with her presidential father and mother, Laura Bush.
"When I got to speak to them, I was just so relieved," she continued. "But then I also thought, 'This is the luckiest.' Because I know that he's okay. And there's kids my age and younger who are never going to see their parents again."
Her twin sister, Barbara, was practically on the other side of the country at the time, attending school at Yale University, less than two hours from New York City.
Jenna Bush Hager recalled her sister's experience on 9/11.
"Her Secret Service came out of the World Trade Center," Jenna revealed about her sister's experience that day. "My dad had just been elected, so we weren't quite used to the Secret Service."
She explained that the officials picked Barbara up and took her to a nearby motel, where one of the Secret Service officials stayed with her and his daughter.
"That image of her jumping on the bed so excited to be with her dad, as opposed to this image of towers falling and their humanity," Jenna concluded. "... Was just this reminder that our country is really beautiful."
