Jenna Bush Hager Reveals Sweet Tradition Son Hal Begged Her to Stop Doing at Bedtime: ‘Geez’

Jenna Bush Hager’s son, Henry Harold “Hal” Hager, is growing up.

During a conversation with Ben Falcone about the actor’s new children’s book What’s Scarier Than Thunder? on the Thursday, March 20, episode of Today With Jenna & Friends, the talk show host, 43, revealed that Hal, 5, is starting to feel differently about a tradition they’ve had at bedtime.

“When I read to my little, he goes, ‘Regular regular.’ And, I go, ‘What do you mean?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t like that voice like, you don’t need to perform with everything Mom,'” Jenna explained. “I would do the voices, and he’d say ‘Regular regular,’ which I’m like, ‘Geez.’”

Ben, 51, said he wondered if Hal would ask for “regular voices” if Jenna read his new book to her son. She joked that she would purposely use silly voices while reading it to try and get Hal to say, “Regular, regular!”

Of course, Hal has already shown that he’s on the fast track to growing up before. During a July 2024 episode of the talk show, Jenna revealed that she introduced her kids to country singer Lainey Wilson, and Hal proved himself to be a little ladies’ man.

The NBC personality explained that she heard Hal say, “She asked me to be her boyfriend — and now I’m her boyfriend.”

However, according to Hal, his relationship with Lainey, 32, ended as quickly as it began.

“I heard him say the other day, ‘Well, I called and broke up with her,’” Jenna said. “So Lainey, you have an admirer named Hal Hager, who created a whole story about how y’all once dated.”

In addition to Hal, Jenna shares daughters Mila, 11, and Poppy, 9, with husband Henry Hager, whom she married in 2008.

During the March 3 episode of Today With Jenna & Friends, the former first daughter revealed whether or not she might one day add another baby to the family. The discussion came up when Savannah Guthrie said she dreamt about Jenna being pregnant with her fourth child and asked if the mom of three had any announcements she wanted to make.

“I have nothing to announce,” Jenna replied. “I’m pretty sure I’ve come to terms that three, even though it’s an imperfect number, is the perfect number for our house.”

Savannah, 53, admitted that it was normal to feel “broody” for another child.

“You’re kind of broody for a third or a fourth,” the Today star said. “I would have had a third in a heartbeat, but, you know, I was up against the clock.”

Meanwhile, during an earlier episode of the talk show, the I Loved You First author got candid about the topic of failure in children with guest Monica Lewinsky.

“It’s actually my biggest concern as a mom is I don’t think our kids are allowed to fail,” Jenna said. “And I failed publicly and it’s actually what makes me, I feel like, my superpower. I feel brave because you can come out of something. We need to teach kids that they can come out of things.”