Jenna Bush Hager recently shared an unexpected story from her childhood that revealed a rare side of her famously easygoing father, former President George W. Bush. During an episode of Today with Jenna & Friends, she recounted an incident from the first grade that left her dad fuming over what her twin sister, Barbara, was exposed to during a sleepover.
According to Jenna, Barbara was invited to a friend’s house where the host mom allowed them to watch the R-rated comedy A Fish Called Wanda. The film was inappropriate for their age as it featured mature content that shocked the young girls and their parents alike. The decision sparked outrage, not from her mom as expected, but from their father.
Jenna Bush Hager recalls George W. Bush’s reaction to R-rated sleepover movie
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Bush did not take the situation lightly, and instead of brushing it off, the former president took on a surprisingly stern stance. Jenna recalled him going Nancy Reagan on the hosting parent, referencing Reagan’s well-known advocacy for media morality during her time as First Lady in the ‘80s.
Although she later joked he may not have gone full Nancy Reagan, Jenna clarified that he definitely had a strong reaction. She compared it to Tipper Gore’s activism for parental control over media content. Gore famously led efforts to label music with explicit lyrics and fought for parental awareness of entertainment content in that same era.
Cultural concerns over kids’ media exposure
The conversation touched on broader cultural debates that still resonate today. Reagan’s and Gore’s campaigns reflected an era when parents pushed back on increasingly explicit media. Jenna noted how those concerns weren’t just political, as they hit home for even the First Family.
She also pointed out how parental instincts transcend titles; though her father, Bush, led a nation, at home he was just a dad trying to protect his daughters. Sometimes, that meant getting righteously angry over an inappropriate movie at a seemingly innocent sleepover.