malia sasha obama© Photo: Getty Images

How Malia and Sasha Obama were supported by Jenna Bush Hager during a challenging time

The Today host had been in their shoes

Beatriz Colon - New York
New York WriterNew York
November 20, 2022

As a child, moving from the home you grew up in into a new place is already difficult enough, but for Malia and Sasha Obama it was even more challenging, as in 2008 they were catapulted into the spotlight and moved not to any home, but the White House.

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The two – Malia is now 24 and Sasha is 21 – were only ten and seven when they became First Daughters, the latter being the youngest person to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr.

However, difficult as it might have been, they at least had quite the famous face to help them with the challenging transition, someone who had been in their shoes before, none other than Today Show's Jenna Bush Hager.

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The host has a lot of history with the White House, having been eight when her grandfather George H. W. Bush was inaugurated, and twenty when her father George W. Bush stepped into the Presidency.

When it was time for the Obama family to become the new residents of the historic home, Jenna was sure to be there to show Malia and Sasha the ropes, and visited the capital with her twin sister, Barbara Pierce Bush, to give the girls an extra special tour of where they once called home.

Back in 2020, for the 12th year anniversary of the special moment, the mom-of-three reflected on first meeting the fellow First Daughters, taking to Instagram to share photos from her visit, and she wrote: "I drove from my job teaching in Baltimore to meet my mom and sister in DC to show the next residents of this house their new home."

Jenna shared a heartfelt throwback of her first time meeting Malia and Sasha

She endearingly recalled: "Barbara and I taught the girls how to slide down the banister and all the secrets of the White House we loved as little girls—the best hiding spots, the movie theatre, and bowling alley," adding an adorable photo of the four First Daughters and former first lady Laura Bush standing at the top of the hallway ramp they used as a slide.

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Former First Lady Michelle Obama has opened up about how special the twins' visit was for her daughters, detailing on the Today Show how much they "cherished" their hospitality and telling Jenna herself: "Malia and Sasha remember that time more than a lot of things that I would've thought of."

© Photo: Getty Images

The two girls became First Daughters in 2009 at ages ten and seven

She even revealed that the former First Daughter's post reflecting on that time prompted the Obama family to spend an entire dinner remembering their historic move, saying: "We sat and had an entire dinner about those first days and how they just cherished these two young, beautiful women who had done what they were doing, who were taking time out of their lives [to make the visit.]"

She added: "You came in from wherever you were especially to meet with them and they knew that… It made a difference in their entire experience."

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