Hoda Kotb is celebrating the birthday of her favorite “cover girl” — Jenna Bush Hager!
In honor of my friend i Today with Hoda and Jenna co-host on her special day, Kotb, 59, shared a photo of herself flipping through Bush Hager’s August PEOPLE cover.
“Happy birthday to my cover girl!!” Kotb described the tribute to Hager, who turned 42 on Saturday. “I love you @jennabhager.”
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Bush Hager celebrated her birthday — and that of her fraternal twin sister Barbara Bush — with a sweet post of her own.
“What a wonderful gift it is to be a partner in everything with this girl I love with all my heart,” Today the presenter wrote several photos of the twins at their gala dinner.
“Happiest birthday to the brightest light, @barbara.p.bush! Let’s write another book so we can go on tour. I love you so much,” she finished.
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Earlier this year, on Kotba’s birthday, Bush Hager paid tribute to her Today co-host in a birthday message and thanked her for making her life “more joyful.”
When Kotb turned 59 on Aug. 9, the founder of the Read With Jenna book club shared a pair of sweet photos of the pair at work together — one in the studio and one in matching rainbow snowsuits.
“Happiest birthday @hodakotb!” she wrote alongside the pictures. “I love sitting next to you (or standing in full snow gear!) You make my life more joyful every day!”
“The girl will love you!” Kotb replied.
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Kotb has never been secretive about her love for Bush Hager, who was by her side in Today more than four years.
While speaking with PEOPLE for Bush Hager’s August cover story, the daytime TV veteran said she admires her co-host’s ability to be herself and fearlessly share intimate details about her life. (Over the years, Bush Hager shared stories that range from going commando while meeting King Charles to participating in “happy-panky” at the White House while her father, George W. Bush, was in office.)
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Jenna Bush Hager on the cover of PEOPLE.
Brian Doben
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“When I watched her throw those bombs on the table, I said, ‘Girl, what are you doing?’ But she’s unabashedly herself,” Kotb told PEOPLE, adding that “people spend their whole lives trying to get there, and she’s exactly who she is.”
However, according to Bush Hager, she never gave these so-called “bombs” much thought.
“I actually try not to put too much pressure on myself to be perfect, because I’m nowhere near that,” she told PEOPLE. “I find perfection terribly boring.”
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Source: HIS Education