Why This Famous Mom Sees All of Her 10-Year-Old’s Texts

Published: August 22, 2025

By Michaela Gordoni

TODAY host Jenna Bush Hager sees all of her 10-year-old, Poppy’s, texts because she’s too young to have a phone.

“I get her text messages because she just gives everybody my cell phone [number],” Bush Hager told her co-star, Savannah Guthrie this month. “She doesn’t text that much because she doesn’t have a phone. But she’ll use her iPad to write, ‘Hey!’ and somebody writes back, ‘Hey!’ And I’m like, ‘What is happening where I’m getting Gigi’s FaceTimes?'”

As a mom of three, Bush often talks about parenting on the show. She took her 12-year-old, Mila to see a concert and cried when she saw how happy it made her daughter.

“It was so much fun and I don’t like…I’m going through something, obviously. My oldest is going into middle school,” Bush Hager began.

“For whatever reason, we sat down, and this is like, think about how embarrassing this is as a child. And just seeing how excited they were for her. I started crying,” she continued. “I was like, ‘This is so beautiful. Look at like…’ To see this concert through their eyes.”

She realized this may be one of the only times that Mila will still want to go to concerts with her.

“And I was just thinking like, this could be the last time my seventh grader is cool with sitting next to her mom at a concert. In a few years, she’s going to be going with all of her buddies and not mommy,” Bush Hager explained.

During the concert, her husband went to get drinks.

“He got back and he was like, ‘Are you crying again?’ And I was like, I just was thinking time is going so fast,” she recalled. “And she’ll sit next to me and hold my hand a little.”

“And he’s like, ‘Don’t cry. She’s humiliated. You know, you want to keep her next to you.’ But it was so fun,” she said.

Last year, she shared she celebrated Mila’s birthday at a waterpark. There were 14 kids and she “lost” one of them. She recanted a list of things she is “done” with in an Instagram video, including water parks. Among the other things were her kids taking her phone to take selfies or look on Amazon and breaking up fights.

“We’re all done with some things,” she said lightheartedly. “What are y’all done with?”

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Bush Hager has also written several books for kids with her sister, Barbara. This year, they released “I Loved You First” which celebrates the relationship between parents and kids.

“Barbara and I have always loved the type of books that are for kids, but are also an ode to parenthood and how much we love our kids because every parent wants similar things for their children,” Bush Hager told First for Women. “And being a parent is this beautiful sort of heart-opening, incredible experience. And so our new book — yes, it’s for kids, but it’s really a meditation on parenthood and how lucky we are to see the world through our kids’ eyes.”

Bush Hager’s parenting journey shows that while she’s “done” with some things, she truly cherishes special bonds and moments with her kids.

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