Jenna Bush Hager Never Thought She Could Love Her Kids More Than Her Cat Bernadette: ‘Crazy’

Jenna Bush Hager admitted to having a “crazy” thought during her first pregnancy with her eldest daughter, Mila, in 2013. The shocking comment came during an episode of Today on Wednesday, July 24.

The discussion started off between Jenna, 42, and cohost Hoda Kotb, as they talked about Hailey Bieber’s recent interview with W Magazine where she opened up about her pregnancy.

“In the beginning [of pregnancy], it was super emotional for me. Like, ‘I love this human so much. How can I possibly bring someone else into this?’” Hailey, 27, told the outlet in the interview, which was published on Tuesday, July 23. “I’m trying to soak in these days of it being Justin and me, just the two of us.”

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Jenna, who is also a mom to kids Poppy and Hal with Henry Hager, then decided to make her candid confession, which definitely shocked viewers at home.
“I will say, I remember feeling this way,” the former first daughter said. “And this is gonna sound crazy. But could I ever love anything as much as my cat, Bernadette? I remember I said it to my friend, Crystal, you can call her and ask her.”

Hoda, 59, began laughing after Jenna made the comment. She is a mom of two daughters, Haley and Hope.

“Crystal at that point was my only friend that had a child, well, she had a cat too named Killer, but she had a child,” Jenna explained. “She was like, ‘Jenna, your heart has room. But also hilarious that you think your cat is gonna compare.’”

Hoda said that Jenna’s mentality “spoke volumes about you and your cat relationships. I didn’t know it was like that.”

Jenna went on to say that after her first pregnancy, she “heard from friends who had gone from baby one to two, who have thought, ‘How is it possible? How am I going to have enough room?’” before turning to Hoda and asking if she ever felt the same way when she adopted her kids.

“I so wanted a child for so long that I think I didn’t have that initially, but I didn’t realize that your heart’s ability to expand is beyond measure, like there’s always room,” Hoda responded.

“If you want more to love, there’s room,” Hoda continued. “You just have to decide if you have the space and the time … if it’s getting a puppy or all of the different things, or another friend, it doesn’t even matter. But I think sometimes people are like, ‘I feel tapped out, I don’t have any room’ and then you should listen to that.’”

To finish off the conversation, Jenna brought the nature of the topic back to Hailey, who is expecting her first child with husband Justin Bieber.

“She is going to find out though, she’s gonna be like, ‘bye Justin! Bye!’ I mean, and a ‘hi’ but it brings you together in a completely different way but I don’t think you judge one relationship to the other and she’ll have space for both,” the Sisters First author concluded.