Back to work! Jenna Bush Hager returned to the Today show on Friday, April 27, for the first time since her grandmother, former first lady Barbara Bush, passed away 10 days ago. It’s been a tough week for the family as one day after Barbara, who died at the age of 92, was laid to rest, her husband, George H. W. Bush, was admitted to the ICU for a blood infection.
“He’s sad, but he’s doing well. Last time we talked to him he was eating barbecue,” the Today correspondent, 36, said on the show, adding that the former president, 93, hopes to still travel with the family to their place in Kennebunkport, Maine, during the summer. “He’s doing great. He’s goal-oriented, and he wants to get to Maine. We think he’s going to be going there.”
As previously reported, he is now out of intensive care and recovering. “He is alert and talking with hospital staff, family and friends, and his doctors are very pleased with his progress,” a statement from his office on Wednesday, April 26, read, adding that Bush’s main focus was “the Houston Rockets closing out their playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.”
Hager also spoke about her grandmother’s funeral, which was attended by first lady Melania Trump, Michelle and Barack Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
“You know what’s so amazing is to hear how beloved she was. We loved her, but we drove from Houston to College Station to bury her next to her daughter, and the streets, the highways were packed with people,” Hager told her colleagues, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. “People holding up their pearls. It was so touching to our family to feel that love.”
Two days before her passing, the office of the former president revealed that she was stopping all medical treatments and would instead “focus on comfort and care.”
For access to all our exclusive celebrity videos and interviews – Subscribe on YouTube!
