JENNA BUSH HAGER - 'I FIND PERFECTION WILDLY BORING'

HOW A CHILDHOOD IN THE POLITICAL SPOTLIGHT MADE THE TODAY SHOW COHOST UNIQUELY POISED NOT TO CARE ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE THINK: 'I'M RESILIENT AND BRAVE'

- CHARLOTTE TRIGGS

DINNERTIME AT JENNA BUSH HAGER'S HOUSE is fairly routine: "We have turkey tacos one night, sausage with peppers the next, and then we make bowls," says the Today show cohost, 41. For Bush Hager-who was raised until the age of 5 in Midland, Texas, before the political ambitions of her father, former President George W. Bush, ultimately took her, twin sister Barbara and mom Laura to the governor's mansion in Austin and later the White House-keeping it simple in the kitchen is one way she stays grounded. "This is exactly what I was raised on, where we had the same meals every night. What I'm making is not Julia Child, let's put it that way. I'm not Martha Stewart," she says with a laugh. "In fact I try not to put too much pressure on myself for perfection, because I'm nothing close to that. I find perfection to be wildly boring."

Bush Hager is anything but boring. In conversations with her Today With Hoda & Jenna cohost Hoda Kotb, she's revealed some seriously personal stories: going commando when meeting Prince Charles, getting a sunburn on a topless beach while studying abroad in Spain and engaging in "hanky-panky" at the White House while her dad was President. But she's equally open about deeply sensitive topics affecting women, like fertility struggles and body confidence. "When I watched her drop those bombs on the desk, I was like, 'Girl, what are you doing?"" says Kotb, 59. "But she's unabashedly herself. People spend their whole lives trying to get there, and she is exactly who she is." Bush Hager, who is mom to daughters Mila, 10, and Poppy, 8, and son Hal, 4, with husband Henry Hager, a financier, doesn't give it much thought. "I don't worry about what I share about myself," she says. "Frankly, I am a pretty open book."