Jenna Bush Hager revealed she was once moments away from getting a back tattoo — but the parlor was closed.
While talking on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna Sept. 21 about ways people deal with a big life change, Jenna shared she used to cope with heartbreak by presenting herself in a different way than how she actually felt.
“When I was heartbroken, I pushed myself out there, and drank or went out with people in order to present one way,” she said.
“I think forcing yourself to put on something for other people is a waste of energy,” she added, to which Hoda Kotb agreed.
Jenna then recalled one time, after a breakup, her friend, Tracy, convinced her to go out — and the night ended with Jenna attempting to get "survivor" tattooed across her back.
“Wait, what!” Hoda said.
“The Destiny’s Child song was popular (at the time),” Jenna responded.
But when they showed up to a nearby tattoo parlor, “Thank you, Jesus, it was closed,” she shared.
“Could you imagine if I had ‘Survivor’ tattooed?” Jenna asked.
“By the way, I love Tracy,” Hoda said. “She dragged you out…everybody needs that friend.”
Jenna also revealed that she "ended up getting back together with the person about 47 times."
Jenna has shared many stories around her past and present love life, especially about meeting her husband, Henry Hager.
Jenna and Henry first met through mutual friends while he was working on President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. Their first official date was complicated, though, when the they had to deal with the Secret Service being around her.
“His car ran out of gas and went backwards and hit the Secret Service,” Jenna said on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna in February 2021, calling it her worst first date.
Even though it may have started on a rough note, Jenna knew early on that Henry was the one.
“I do think one of the reasons why I knew really soon Henry was the one is I was completely myself, and he loved it,” she said on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna in June 2020.
Though Jenna first proposed to Henry after three months of dating, the two officially got engaged in 2007 and then married in 2008 at her parents’ Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Since then, Jenna and Henry have welcomed three children: Mila in 2013, Poppy in 2015, and Hal in 2019.
