Presidents' Children: The Bush Twins
When George W. Bush was inaugurated as President in January of 2001, his twin daughters Barbara and Jenna were 20 years old. There were times during the Bush Presidency when their late adolescent exploits proved somewhat embarrassing to the President, and likely a challenge to the Secret Service. Today, 14 years later, both have gone on to distinguish themselves in their careers, one in the health field, the other in the news media.
On November 25, 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to fraternal twin daughters, Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Welch Bush. Barbara was the first born of the two, who entered the world at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. At the time the Bush family lived in the Preston Hollow section of Dallas and George W. Bush ran an oil exploration company called Arbusto Energy. The two girls attended Preston Hollow Elementary School and their mother Laura Bush served on Preston Hollow's Parent Teachers Association. Barbara and Jenna attended The Hockaday School in Dallas. Their father became Governor of Texas in 1994 and the family moved to Austin. The girls attended St. Andrew's Episcopal School there. They Austin High School in 1996, graduating with the class of 2000.
Barbara Bush
After graduating from high school. Barbara Bush attended Yale University. She went to work for the Cooper–Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, a subsidiary of the Smithsonian Institution. Before doing that however, she worked with AIDS patients in Tanzania, South Africa, and Botswana. She worked under the auspices of a program sponsored by the Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine's International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative.
Barbara graduated from Yale in May of 2004. That was an election year and during that summer, she and her sister made several media appearances in support of her father's campaign. The two girls gave a speech to the Republican Convention on August 31. The two made appearances in swing states with their father and gave interviews to a number of media outlets including Vogue magazine.
During her father's second term, Barbara joined her mother on a diplomatic trip to Liberia in January 2006 to attend the inauguration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She also went to Vatican City to meet with Pope Benedict XVI in February 2006.
Barbara Bush co-founded a public health-focused non-profit corporation called Global Health Corps. Global Health Corps lists as its goal :providing opportunities for young professionals from diverse backgrounds to work on the front lines of the fight for global health equity." Global Health Corps won a prestigious Draper Richards Foundation Fellowship in 2009. She was also chosen as one of the 14 speakers selected from an applicant pool of 1,500 to speak at the TEDx Brooklyn convention in December 2010, where she spoke about Global Health Corps.
In 2011, Barbara Bush released a video for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest American lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization. In the video she called on the New York State legislature to legalize same-sex marriage. In the video she said "I am Barbara Bush, and I am a New Yorker for marriage equality... New York is about fairness and equality. And everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love." Other children of prominent Republican politicians gave similar endorsements in the campaign including Meghan McCain and Mary Cheney.
Jenna Bush
Jenna Bush attended the University of Texas at Austin. She also took summer classes at New York University. It was Austin that Jenna and her sister Barbara made national headlines when they were both arrested for alcohol-related charges twice within 5 weeks. The first time was on April 29, 2001, when Jenna was charged with a misdemeanor for possession of alcohol under the age 21. On May 29, 2001, Jenna was charged with attempting to use a fake ID to purchase alcohol. She pleaded no contest to both charges.Despite these youthful indiscretions, Jenna graduated from UT Austin with a degree in English in 2004.
Jenna reports that she asked her father not to run for president in 2000, for fear of how it would affect the lives of her and her family. He chose not to follow that advice however, and when he ran for re-election, Jenna decided to get involved in his campaign. She made media appearances during the summer of 2004 prior to the election, both alone and with her sister. She and Barbara gave a speech together to the Republican Convention on August 31, 2004. Jenna and Barbara took turns traveling to swing states with their father and also gave a seven-page interview and photo shoot in Vogue Magazine. The media made a big deal about the "battle of the daughters" when John Kerry's daughters Vanessa and Alexandra also got involved in his campaign.
In the summer of 2006, Jenna worked at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School for a year and a half as a teacher's aide. She took a leave of absence from that position to work at a shelter as part of an internship for UNICEF's Educational Policy Department in Panama. After this internship, she returned to her job at the charter school in Washington, D.C. In 2007, Jenna co-authored a book called Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, about her experiences working with UNICEF sponsored charities in Latin America. Her share of the profits from book sales go to UNICEF. During the book tour, she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and spoke to her parents by phone during the interview. She wrote a second book, along with her mother, entitled Read All About It! The book was published on April 22, 2008, and is intended to encourage children to read. On November 26, 2012, she became editor-at-large of Southern Living magazine.
In August 2009, NBC hired Jenna as a new correspondent for the Today show. She contributes stories about once a month. Among the stories she submitted was an interview with former President Bill Clinton, which aired on April 19, 2010. In the interview he discussed Haiti and his daughter Chelsea's upcoming marriage. She also fills-in as co-anchor and "Orange Room anchor" on the Today she and is also a contributor and a substitute anchor on NBC Nightly News.
Jenna Bush and Henry Chase Hager became engaged in August 2007. News of their relationship became public when the two appeared together at a White House dinner for The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in November 2005. Henry Hager attended St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia, and holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. He worked as a U.S. Department of Commerce aide for Carlos Gutierrez and as a White House aide for Karl Rove. He is the son of former Virginia Republican Party Chairman John H. Hager, who previously served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and as the U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary in the Bush administration. The couple were married in a private ceremony on May 10, 2008, at her parents' Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford, Texas.
On December 12, 2012, Henry and Jenna Hager announced on the The Today Show that they were expecting their first child. Their daughter, Margaret Laura "Mila" Hager, was born on April 13, 2013, in New York City. Mila is named after her grandmothers. Laura Bush and Margaret Hager.
Last month, on Monday April 6, 2015 Hager announced she was pregnant with her second daughter, due in August.
On November 25, 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to fraternal twin daughters, Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Welch Bush. Barbara was the first born of the two, who entered the world at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. At the time the Bush family lived in the Preston Hollow section of Dallas and George W. Bush ran an oil exploration company called Arbusto Energy. The two girls attended Preston Hollow Elementary School and their mother Laura Bush served on Preston Hollow's Parent Teachers Association. Barbara and Jenna attended The Hockaday School in Dallas. Their father became Governor of Texas in 1994 and the family moved to Austin. The girls attended St. Andrew's Episcopal School there. They Austin High School in 1996, graduating with the class of 2000.
Barbara Bush
After graduating from high school. Barbara Bush attended Yale University. She went to work for the Cooper–Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, a subsidiary of the Smithsonian Institution. Before doing that however, she worked with AIDS patients in Tanzania, South Africa, and Botswana. She worked under the auspices of a program sponsored by the Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine's International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative.
Barbara graduated from Yale in May of 2004. That was an election year and during that summer, she and her sister made several media appearances in support of her father's campaign. The two girls gave a speech to the Republican Convention on August 31. The two made appearances in swing states with their father and gave interviews to a number of media outlets including Vogue magazine.
During her father's second term, Barbara joined her mother on a diplomatic trip to Liberia in January 2006 to attend the inauguration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She also went to Vatican City to meet with Pope Benedict XVI in February 2006.
Barbara Bush co-founded a public health-focused non-profit corporation called Global Health Corps. Global Health Corps lists as its goal :providing opportunities for young professionals from diverse backgrounds to work on the front lines of the fight for global health equity." Global Health Corps won a prestigious Draper Richards Foundation Fellowship in 2009. She was also chosen as one of the 14 speakers selected from an applicant pool of 1,500 to speak at the TEDx Brooklyn convention in December 2010, where she spoke about Global Health Corps.
In 2011, Barbara Bush released a video for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest American lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization. In the video she called on the New York State legislature to legalize same-sex marriage. In the video she said "I am Barbara Bush, and I am a New Yorker for marriage equality... New York is about fairness and equality. And everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love." Other children of prominent Republican politicians gave similar endorsements in the campaign including Meghan McCain and Mary Cheney.
Jenna Bush
Jenna Bush attended the University of Texas at Austin. She also took summer classes at New York University. It was Austin that Jenna and her sister Barbara made national headlines when they were both arrested for alcohol-related charges twice within 5 weeks. The first time was on April 29, 2001, when Jenna was charged with a misdemeanor for possession of alcohol under the age 21. On May 29, 2001, Jenna was charged with attempting to use a fake ID to purchase alcohol. She pleaded no contest to both charges.Despite these youthful indiscretions, Jenna graduated from UT Austin with a degree in English in 2004.
Jenna reports that she asked her father not to run for president in 2000, for fear of how it would affect the lives of her and her family. He chose not to follow that advice however, and when he ran for re-election, Jenna decided to get involved in his campaign. She made media appearances during the summer of 2004 prior to the election, both alone and with her sister. She and Barbara gave a speech together to the Republican Convention on August 31, 2004. Jenna and Barbara took turns traveling to swing states with their father and also gave a seven-page interview and photo shoot in Vogue Magazine. The media made a big deal about the "battle of the daughters" when John Kerry's daughters Vanessa and Alexandra also got involved in his campaign.
In the summer of 2006, Jenna worked at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School for a year and a half as a teacher's aide. She took a leave of absence from that position to work at a shelter as part of an internship for UNICEF's Educational Policy Department in Panama. After this internship, she returned to her job at the charter school in Washington, D.C. In 2007, Jenna co-authored a book called Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, about her experiences working with UNICEF sponsored charities in Latin America. Her share of the profits from book sales go to UNICEF. During the book tour, she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and spoke to her parents by phone during the interview. She wrote a second book, along with her mother, entitled Read All About It! The book was published on April 22, 2008, and is intended to encourage children to read. On November 26, 2012, she became editor-at-large of Southern Living magazine.
In August 2009, NBC hired Jenna as a new correspondent for the Today show. She contributes stories about once a month. Among the stories she submitted was an interview with former President Bill Clinton, which aired on April 19, 2010. In the interview he discussed Haiti and his daughter Chelsea's upcoming marriage. She also fills-in as co-anchor and "Orange Room anchor" on the Today she and is also a contributor and a substitute anchor on NBC Nightly News.
Jenna Bush and Henry Chase Hager became engaged in August 2007. News of their relationship became public when the two appeared together at a White House dinner for The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in November 2005. Henry Hager attended St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia, and holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. He worked as a U.S. Department of Commerce aide for Carlos Gutierrez and as a White House aide for Karl Rove. He is the son of former Virginia Republican Party Chairman John H. Hager, who previously served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and as the U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary in the Bush administration. The couple were married in a private ceremony on May 10, 2008, at her parents' Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford, Texas.
On December 12, 2012, Henry and Jenna Hager announced on the The Today Show that they were expecting their first child. Their daughter, Margaret Laura "Mila" Hager, was born on April 13, 2013, in New York City. Mila is named after her grandmothers. Laura Bush and Margaret Hager.
Last month, on Monday April 6, 2015 Hager announced she was pregnant with her second daughter, due in August.