NEWSApril Fools' Joke Gone Wrong! Jenna Bush Hager Slips and Falls Over Icing in Attempt to Trick Willie Geist About $20,000 Cake
On 'TODAY With Jenna & Sheinelle,' Jenna Bush Hager slipped and fell over icing in an attempt to trick Willie Geist for April Fools' Day.
April 1 2026, Published 1:57 p.m. ET
Jenna Bush Hager’s April Fools’ joke turned out to be a major slip-up.
During the Wednesday, April 1, episode of TODAY With Jenna & Sheinelle, the media personality, 44, tried to fake bringing an expensive cake on set before tripping and falling over the treat.
Jenna Bush Hager accidentally slipped on icing.
In a segment titled “The Feed,” internet guru and Today editor Arianna Davis Santana introduced a “viral cake.”
“This is a $20,000 cake…it is all the rage on the internet right now because they only make one of these every single day that you can only get,” Santana explained.
“What are you talking about?” co-host Willie Geist asked, shocked by the price tag.
Bush Hager got out of her seat and walked toward the assistant who brought the cake on set.
“Is it really heavy?” she asked, before the dessert went toppling onto the floor and on her black sandals. The host slipped and fell over the icing and looked up at Geist with a smile.
“Well, there goes the one cake. $20,000,” Sanatana said.
Jenna Bush Hager's April Fools' prank took an awkward turn.
Geist knelt down to help Bush Hager to her feet, but he was clued into the joke.
“April Fools, everybody!” he exclaimed.
“You knew it?” Bush Hager asked, disappointed that she wasn’t able to fool her costar.
Geist insisted that she did a “good job,” and he only knew she was kidding after she “went down.”
“Well, I did get it all over my shoes. I really committed!” the mom-of-three expressed.
“Was the fall real? Because I even was like, ‘Was she [ok]?’” Santana asked.
“The fall was real, but we tried to trick Willie,” Bush Hager clarified.
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Jenna Bush Hager pretended to feature a $20,000 cake.
Geist pointed out how a $20,000 cake is “suspicious,” and he even questioned it to Santana ahead of the segment.
“I like the commitment from Jenna Bush Hager,” he said, applauding. “She takes a spill for the cause.”
“Give her an Emmy!” Santana declared.
Did Willie Geist Know About the Prank?
Willie Geist figured out that Jenna Bush Hager was pulling a prank on him.
Geist walked Bush Hager through his train of thought when reading about the $20,000 cake they would be featuring.
“Upstairs, I was like, ‘You know what? It’s a crazy world out there. Someone’s going to buy that for their wedding. Maybe it’s real,’” he considered. “I didn’t know why they’d send us one for free.”
Bush Hager then exclaimed, “I didn’t mean to fall! That was real because the cake icing.”
Fans credited the star for her clever joke.
“Great acting Jenna,” one person wrote with laughing emojis on YouTube.
Jenna Bush Hager's Son and Husband Pranked Her for April Fools' Day
Jenna Bush Hager's fall was not planned.
Earlier in the episode, the TV host revealed that her son, Hal, and husband, Henry, tricked her into thinking the 6-year-old was sick at home.
“Hal Hager’s already gotten me today. Age six. Sent a picture…Henry texted me a picture with him laying on the ground…Henry called, and I called back, and I’m like, ‘What’s up?’ He’s like, ‘Hal didn’t feel good,’” she explained. “I’m like, ‘Dang, what’s wrong?’ And Hal goes, ‘April Fools!’”
