Jenna Bush Hager broke down in tears as a third grader after stumbling upon her father’s secret past engagement.
The “Today” show host, 43, revealed on Friday’s broadcast that she discovered George W. Bush had once been set to marry another woman years before he wed her mother, Laura Bush. The revelation came during a segment on “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle” as she reflected on how she learned about the former president’s hidden romantic history.
Bush Hager explained that the discovery happened after she came home with a disappointing math grade. “I got like a bad grade on a math test in the third grade and I was like, ‘I bet you got bad grades too, dad,'” she recalled on the NBC program. Her father responded by pulling out a keepsake from his own childhood to prove his academic record was spotless.
“He took out his memory box that my grandmother had made him, kind of a photo album, to show a report card,” she continued. “I saw a wedding announcement to someone who wasn’t my mom.”
The unexpected find triggered an emotional outburst from the young Bush Hager. “I started crying and made it about myself,” she said, laughing at the memory now. “As a third grader does.” Her father then calmly confirmed the truth: “He was like, ‘Oh yeah, I was engaged.'”
The engagement in question involved Cathryn Lee Wolfman, George W. Bush’s college sweetheart. The pair began dating while he attended Yale University and she studied at nearby Rice University, and he proposed in 1967 during his junior year. His office confirmed in 1999 that the two were “briefly” engaged, though no official reason was given for why the wedding never happened.
“He thought the world of her, but they gradually drifted apart,” spokeswoman Karen Hughes said at the time, adding a request that “the media would respect her privacy.”
A Vanity Fair profile published in October 2000 described Wolfman as a “fun-loving cheerleader” who was also a “dean’s-list student” and “totally apolitical.” The magazine reported that their relationship ultimately “fizzled out” due to demanding schedules, and that Wolfman later went on to work with the CIA after completing her degree.
Bush Hager, looking back with adult perspective, praised her father for having the conviction to walk away from the commitment. “I didn’t realize in that third grade melodramatic [state], like, good thing he called it off or I wouldn’t be here,” she reflected on Friday’s show. “But I do think to be able to walk away from something like that, you really have to listen to yourself.”
The broken engagement came a full decade before George W. Bush married Laura Welch in November 1977. The couple met at a backyard barbecue in Midland, Texas, and wed after a whirlwind courtship of just about three months. They went on to welcome twin daughters Barbara and Jenna four years later, in 1981.
Bush Hager has become known for sharing candid family anecdotes during her tenure on the morning program, often drawing from her unique upbringing as the daughter of a president. Her twin sister, Barbara Bush, has largely stayed out of the public eye compared to her media-facing sibling.
The former president was “very young” when the engagement to Wolfman occurred, Bush Hager noted during Friday’s broadcast. She did not specify exactly how old she was when she made the discovery, though third graders in the American school system are typically eight or nine years old.
Bush Hager co-hosts the fourth hour of “Today” alongside Sheinelle Jones, and the segment where she shared this memory aired as part of their regular Friday programming.
