Jenna Bush Hager Claims 'Today' Crew Shamed Her and Sister Barbara Bush With Underage Drinking Question

On the Thursday, November 9, episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna, Jenna Bush Hager had a very special guest stand in for Hoda Kotb — her twin sister, Barbara Bush.

However, there was some tension between the two former first daughters and the crew after they seemingly alluded to the women’s 2001 underage drinking scandal.

It began with the duo playing a game called “First Loves,” where the siblings had to indicate their “firsts” of various things.

The 41-year-olds were stunned after the game asked what their “first cocktail” had been.

“I think they are trying to shame us with our underage drinking, minor in possession of alcohol,” Jenna stated. “I think this is shame coming from my own team.”

Despite this, both sisters still answered the question, saying it was either a “wine cooler” or “natty light” — a.k.a. Natural Light beer.

The incident the fraternal twins referred to happened right after their father, George W. Bush, took office in the early 2000s. The then-teenage girls got caught trying to use fake IDs while at the University of Texas.

The scandal then blew up across the country and the Bush daughters were quite mortified over the situation.

Regardless of their run-in with the authorities, Jenna previously revealed on the show in 2022 that her parents had a surprising reaction to their “stupid” choices at the time.

“I mean we embarrassed them — although they never said it — on the world stage,” she explained of the infamous incident. “We got in trouble with the law as freshman in college by ordering a margarita at a restaurant called Chuy’s.”

“Barbara and I … were like 19 and a half, maybe 20, close enough but not allowed [to drink],” she noted.

She mentioned that her confidence in using the IDs came from the patriarch trying to allow them to have a “normal” life despite his position.

“When I called my dad to say, ‘I’m really sorry’ … he said, ‘No, I’m sorry,'” Jenna said. “He said, ‘I’m sorry, I told you that you can be normal, and you can’t. You can’t order margaritas.'”

“While we were growing up, I for one had parents that let us fail, let us fall and publicly,” she confessed to Kotb on a different day. “And I always say to them now, ‘How brave of you,’ because it didn’t reflect great on them, either.”

As OK! previously reported, this was not the first time Jenna has spoken about her family on the daytime TV program as of late.

On Monday, November 6, the mother-of-three gushed over seeing her parents and sister at dinner recently.

"We went to dinner just the four of us and what we realized is, I don’t think we’ve been just the four of us in almost 20 years," the co-host admitted.

"I have had a husband for a long time, we’ve had children for 10 years," she said. "Barbara has had boyfriends and husbands, et cetera, et cetera."

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"There was something about it that was really special to be just the four of us. Really special,” she said happily, while raving that there were "no distractions" so they were all able to have the "best time" together.

"Then we went and all got in bed," she noted. "My dad was watching some sort of football game and my mom opened her presents, and then we went to bed at 8:45."