The former president was previously engaged to Cathryn Lee Wolfman in 1967.

Jenna Bush Hager recalls discovering dad George W. Bush’s previous engagement: ‘Started crying and made it about myself’

The former president was previously engaged to Cathryn Lee Wolfman in 1967.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and NME.

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September 25, 2026 4:41 p.m. ET

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Jenna Bush Hager and George W. Bush in 2021. Credit:

Nathan Congleton/NBC/Getty

- Jenna Bush Hager is sharing how she learned of her dad George W. Bush’s previous engagement as a child.

- The *Today* host explained that the pair found the engagement announcement while looking through his old items together.

- George instead would go on to marry his wife Laura Bush, with whom he shares Jenna and her twin sister Barbara, in 1977.

Jenna Bush Hager is remembering the time that she learned an unexpected part of her dad’s past.

During Friday’s episode of *Today*, the host revealed that she burst into tears as a child after finding out her dad, former president George W. Bush, was previously engaged to another woman before her mom, Laura Bush.

“My dad was engaged and he called off his wedding,” Jenna informed her cohost Sheinelle Jones. “They were really young.”

Jenna Bush Hager with her family.

Jenna Bush Hager/Instagram

The former president was previously engaged to fellow college student Cathryn Lee Wolfman in 1967, according to *Today*. However, the pair ultimately went their separate ways in the end, with Bush instead going on to marry Jenna’s mom Laura over a decade later in 1977.

Jenna explained that she found out about her dad’s engagement thanks to her math class. “I got like a bad grade on a math test in third grade and I was like, ‘I bet you got bad grades too, Dad,’” she recalled. “And then he was like, ‘No, I didn’t.’”

Jenna Bush Hager calls dad George W. Bush live on ‘Today’

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To prove his point, Jenna shared that her dad pulled out an old memory box to find a report card, but instead the pair uncovered “a wedding announcement to somebody that wasn’t my mom.”

The reveal took her by complete surprise. “I was like, [sobbing],” she said. “I started crying and made it about myself, as a third grader does, and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, I was engaged.’”

Sheinelle acknowledged that she could understand the politician’s decision. “Sometimes it’s like, well, then that was the path,” she added.

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Jenna, on the other hand, admitted that it took a bit of time for her younger self to understand that it was actually beneficial that her dad *didn’t* end up marrying Wolfman like he originally intended.

“I didn’t realize, in that third grade sort of melodramatic [way], like, ‘Good thing he called it off, because we wouldn’t be here!’” she teased.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Sheinelle agreed. “That’s funny.”

Still, Jenna added, “I do think it’s… to walk away from something like that, you really do have to listen [to your intuition].”

*Today With Jenna and Sheinelle* airs weekdays on NBC. Watch Jenna discuss her dad’s past engagement in the clip above.

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