Jenna Bush Hager is a proud mum to three beautiful children but she’s revealed the huge amount of guilt she felt discovering she was pregnant for the third time.
The Today with Hoda and Jenna star, 38, opened up about motherhood in her new book Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and described the overwhelming emotional reaction she and her father, George W. Bush had over the news.
Because while Jenna was thrilled to become a mum again, and the former US President was excited to welcome another grandchild, they couldn't help but worry about her twin sister Barbara Pierce Bush's reaction.
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As infertility runs in their family - in fact, Jenna describes her last pregnancy as "an immaculate conception" - their thoughts went straight to Barbara, who had just got married.
"They were delighted, but the first thing my father said was, 'Have you told Barbara?'" Jenna wrote. "I knew my father was worried that Barbara, newly married, would likely be trying soon for a baby if she wasn't already.
"My parents went through so much in order to conceive us, so they are sensitive to the feelings of anyone who does not yet have the babies they want. They thought that if Barbara was trying, she might understandably envy my pregnancy.
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© Photo: Getty ImagesJenna with sister Barbara
"My mother scolded my father for putting that pressure on me. She said what she always says when these questions arise: 'Every woman gets her baby in her time.'"
Jenna - who struggled with the conception of her second child - had already told her sister who had made a joke about Jenna's news before congratulating her.
She then panicked about telling her new co-host, Hoda Kotb, 56, as she had gone through the lengthy adoption process for her daughter, Haley Joy, and was at the time trying to adopt again.
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© Photo: InstagramJenna struggled to conceive her middle child
"I knew I should have felt joy," she wrote about the pregnancy being confirmed by the doctor. "But my first feeling was a surge of survivor's guilt. Many of my friends were struggling with infertility. How would they take the news that I was going to have a surprise baby?"
Hoda’s reaction could not have been more heartwarming however, as Jenna wrote: "Her understanding and grace allowed me to begin feeling excited about the pregnancy for the first time. She also told me not to worry about her."
She added: "We held each other and cried."
Jenna shares Margaret 'Mila' Laura, seven, Poppy Louise, four, and Henry 'Hal' Harold with her husband, Henry Hager.
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