Jenna Bush Hager, 41, revealed that her ex-boyfriend broke up with her after seeing her in a bathing suit, during a discussion with co-host Hoda Kotb on Wednesday’s episode of Today. The talk show host opened up about the shocking experience when the topic of body image came up. “It’s so interesting because people really do hit you right where it hurts,” she said when talking about the tough moments a person can have.
“I had a boyfriend in seventh grade who broke up with me after we went swimming together, after he saw me in a bathing suit,” she continued. “I feel like even sometimes now when I feel great — I have three kids, three C-sections, I feel really in my body and I think of it as a beautiful thing — I’ll walk in a pool and have a moment.”
Jenna, who is the mother of her kids, Mila, 9, Poppy, 7, and Hal, 3, further admitted that the pain she went through during that moment has inspired her to raise her brood as “loving” human beings. “All we want is loving children. We don’t need the star kid, the this, the that. We want kids that are kind,” she said. “The way you do that is model it.”
Jenna and Hoda’s conversation about body image stemmed from their discussion on Ariana Grande‘s recent TikTok video. The singer took to the popular social media platform to speak out against body shamers and encourage others to not comment on whether or not they think a person’s body looks good because you never know what that person is going through. She also opened up about how when many people thought she was her healthiest, she wasn’t.
“And personally for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body,” she shared. “I was on a lot of anti-depressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that in fact wasn’t my healthy.”