Jenna Bush Hager Calls Motherhood ‘Overwhelming’ After Losing Child at Daughter Mila’s Birthday Party

Today‘s fourth hour cohost Jenna Bush Hager has terrible memories of her daughter Mila’s 11th birthday bash in April, where one of her child’s friends went missing on a trip to a water park. Now, Jenna has chalked it up to motherhood being “overwhelming.”

Jenna, 42, and cohost Hoda Kotb, 59, reflected on how they discussed the segment on the April 15 episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna, which wasn’t supposed to happen, with People magazine ahead of their Mother’s Day special.

“We were supposed to talk about Coachella,” Jenna told the publication about how the conversation made it on the air.

“Yeah, we couldn’t. You know why? What happened was Jenna took her daughter and 20 young kids to the Dream Mall and she lost one of them,” Hoda, 59, jumped in to say, referring to the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which also features a water park.

“And then she was exhausted, and we realized that there’s too much on the plate,” Hoda continued about motherhood, adding, “There’s too many times that our kids are saying, ‘I don’t want my dinner, I don’t want it like that. I don’t like how it feels.'” The NBC star has two adopted daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 4.

“I’m sorry I lost a child,” Jenna joked, as Hoda added, “Yes, I mean, it happens.” However, the Texas native stated, “But I lost a child because I’ve been overwhelmed by my own children. So, mama is done.” Jenna and husband Henry Hager share three kids: Mila, daughter Poppy, 8, and son Hal, 4.

During the April segment, Jenna shared Mila’s birthday party disaster.

“We went to the American Dream Mall, which if any of y’all visit this area or live in this area, it’s quite an extravaganza. I don’t know why I felt like taking 15 girls to a waterpark and then a theme park,” she recalled.

“And we were in the water park — I forgot my bathing suit. But Mila and her friends had a blast. And it was wonderful until we lost one child,” Jenna explained.

She had a partner system set up for all of the guests, but it didn’t end up working. “I said, ‘Stay with your partner.’ That’s the No. 1 rule. And the No. 2 rule is, ‘Be up here at 2:15.’ Well, nobody turned up at 2:15,” Jenna shared, revealing that daughter Poppy’s friend ended up getting lost.

When Hoda asked how her friend handled the situation, Jenna responded, “How do you think I handled it? Absolute panic. ‘Poppy, there was a buddy system for a reason!’ ‘Well, she didn’t want to go on the scary ride.’ And I said, ‘We never leave people behind.'”

Eventually the little girl was found “waiting by the lion from some movie. And Poppy did mention, ‘She might be waiting for me by the lion.’ But I said, ‘That should have been the headline!’ Because she thought she was in the wave pool, so I was looking for one child in the wave pool,” Jenna shared.

After the party fiasco, the TV personality swore off big birthday bashes at public places.

“I am retiring from water parks — even though the America Dream Mall, if I go to any, that’s the one I’d go to do. I am retiring from big parties. I said, ’No,'” Jenna explained.

“I said, ‘You can have your cousin and your friend.’ You can do small things. No more,'” she added. “Mamma is done. In fact, I think we need to make a ‘Mamma Is Done List’ of things we are never doing again. Big parties — Mamma is done!”