Jenna Bush Hager quotes President Bush following President Donald Trump's travel ban.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush and his daughter Jenna visit R. Perry Import-Export, an exporter of Haitian mangoes in Port-au-Prince during a check up on quake relief efforts on August 10, 2010. REUTERS/Allison Shelley

KEY POINTS

  • Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb discussed Ariana Grande's viral TikTok video
  • Grande addressed the trolls who called her out for being "too thin"
  • Bush Hager said her body shaming experience inspired her to raise loving kids

Jenna Bush Hager has opened up once more about hurtful comments she received about her body.

On Wednesday's broadcast of the "Today" show, Bush Hager recalled an ex-boyfriend dumping her when she was a teen after seeing her in a swimsuit.

"It's so interesting because people really do hit you right where it hurts," the mom of three said during a three-minute confessional. "I had a boyfriend in seventh grade who broke up with me after we went swimming together, after he saw me in a bathing suit."

The former first daughter shared the incident to highlight body shaming's long-term effect on a person's confidence and personality.

"I feel like even sometimes now when I feel great — I have three kids, three C-sections, I feel really in my body and I think of it as a beautiful thing — I'll walk in a pool and have a moment," she continued.

The 41-year-old TV personality added that the pain she endured inspired her to raise her kids to be "loving" human beings. Bush Hager shares three kids — daughters Mila, 9, and Poppy, 7, and son Hal, 3 — with her husband Henry Hager.

"All we want is loving children. We don't need the star kid, the this, the that. We want kids that are kind," she added. "The way you do that is model it."

Bush Hager shared her experience while she and her co-host Hoda Kotb were discussing Ariana Grande's video addressing recent comments about her body. The singer slammed trolls who called her out for being "too thin" and allegedly unhealthy.

"The body that you've been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body," Grande explained in a now-viral TikTok video Tuesday. "I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly. [I was] at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that in fact wasn't my healthy."

She urged her followers and fans to "be gentle with each other and with yourselves." The 29-year-old performer also sent her love to everyone and assured them they're beautiful no matter what they're going through.

Meanwhile, it wasn't the first time Bush Hager opened up about being body shamed. She previously said that she experienced the same humiliation from her grandmother Barbara Bush when she was younger.

"I remember being a teenager. I remember the bikini color that I was wearing, a yellow bikini color," she shared on the same show earlier this year. "I was laying next to my sister [Barbara Bush], and my grandmother, who I adored, but had kind of a biting personality, said something like, 'Oh, Jenna! Looking chubby.'"

Bush Hager admitted, "I remember feeling like I wanted to hide in it."

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 on "Today." Nathan Congleton/NBC