Jenna Bush Hager Accuses Late Grandma Barbara Of Body-Shaming Her

Jenna Bush Hager recently shocked everyone on the “Today” show when she accused her late grandmother Barbara Bush of body-shaming her when she was younger.

Bush Hager Accuses Barbara Of Body-Shaming

Page Six reported that Bush Hager claimed that she was once wearing yellow string bikini when Barbara, who died in 2018 at the age of 92, said that she was “looking chubby.” 

“I was laying next to my sister [Barbara Bush], and my grandmother, who I adored, but had kind of a biting personality, said something like, ‘Oh, Jenna! Looking chubby,’” Bush Hager recalled, according to The New York Post. 

Bush Hager said that this changed how she viewed her own body, saying, “I remember feeling like I wanted to hide in it.”

Barbara would later apologize to Bush Hager, telling her “that her mother said those types of things to her.”

“Her mother always thought of her sister as the really beautiful one and would say it. ‘Martha’s the pretty one. You’re the funny one. You’re the smart one,’” she said. “And so like late, late at life, she said, ‘When I said those things to you, I was talking to myself.’”

“Her mother always thought of her sister as the really beautiful one and would say it,” Bush Hager explained. “‘Martha’s the pretty one. You’re the funny one. You’re the smart one.’”

Despite the apology, Barbara’s words hurt Bush Hager so much that she did not wear a bikini for years,” only doing so again last year. 

“After having three kids, three C-sections, [I did it],” the 41 year-old said. 

Related: Jenna Bush Hager Stuns Everyone – Reveals She Never Wears Underwear

Bush Hager’s Tribute To Barbara

When Barbara passed away back in 2018, Bush Hager paid tribute to her as the “glue that held our family together.”

“I already miss this FORCE of a woman— the ‘enforcer’ because she was the glue that held our family together,” she said at the time, according to People Magazine. “She taught me to use my voice but also to value the opinions of others. She adored her friends and family; her loyalty was unwavering. Humor helps, she often said and it does, Gans, but I will miss your laugh terribly.”

Bush Hager went on to talk about Barbara’s 73 marriage to her grandfather, the former President George H.W. Bush.

“She adored my Gampy, the first man she ever kissed; their love story is so engrained in the history of our family,” she said. “Thinking of my Gampy tonight —no doubt missing his beloved desperately.”

George would die just a few months later at the age of 94.

“Gans, people stopped me all the time to tell me how much they loved you,” Bush Hager concluded. “I didn’t mind sharing you with them. I love you more than tongue can tell, my Ganny.”

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Related: Barbara Bush Gets The Perfect Gift On The Way To Her Final Resting Place

‘She’s The Best Grandma’

Days before Barbara’s death, Bush Hager became emotional as she told “Today” viewers that her grandmother was “in great spirits.”

“We are grateful for her,” Bush Hager said. “She the best grandma anybody could have ever had — or have. We’re grateful for her for everybody’s prayers and thoughts and just know the world is better because she’s in it.”

Barbara likely would have preferred it that her granddaughter not share her story about her body-shaming comments with the entire world. Perhaps Bush Hager should think twice before she airs her family’s dirty laundry again in the future!