Jenna Bush Hager is shedding light on daughterMargaret “Mila” Laura’s summer camp experience, which went from heartbreaking homesickness to so much fun that she forgot to pen home for a few weeks.
Back in July, theTodayco-host said on air that she received the “saddest"letter from her 8-year-old daughter(who was attending summer camp in Texas) that “broke my heart in a million pieces.” Bush Hager read the heart-wrenching letter on the broadcast, with the emotional note going viral afterward.
Bush Hager — who also shares daughterPoppy Louise, 6, and sonHenry “Hal” Harold, 2, with husband Henry Hager — tells PEOPLE that eventually, however, Mila got acclimated and came to “love” her camp experience.
“It broke both of our hearts, but I didn’t think that … I just put it out there. People would stop me on the street and be like, ‘When are you going to get Mila?’ I’m like, ‘I was just reading a letter!’ Then, the camp called, they felt really bad,” she said in a conversation with PEOPLE ahead of Tuesday’sGeorge H.W. Bush Points of Light Awards. “They were like, ‘Don’t worry, she’s happy.’ I was like, ‘No, it’s all okay.’ "
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“We got one letter on the day that said, ‘Dear Daddy, please come and get me,’ which broke Henry’s heart and he, for a minute, was like, ‘Should we go and get her?’ I was like, no,” Bush Hager continues. “I’m not kidding, we received the second letter in a three-week period on the day that Henry went to go get her that was like, ‘Dear Mom and Dad, sorry I haven’t written. I’ve been having so much fun.’ That’s how life goes.”
The mom of three explains that Mila “was really homesick.”
“She went to camp in Texas; she’s from New York City and it’s like 97 degrees outside on a lake in Texas, so there might’ve been some slight culture shock that I don’t really appreciate because I went to that camp but I was from Texas and was used to the summers,” she tells PEOPLE.
Jenna Bush Hager/Instagram
Reflecting on interest in the letter after she read it aloud onTodaybeside co-hostHoda Kotb, Bush Hager says, “We were concerned, which is why I said it out loud. But the whole country didn’t need to be concerned! It’s all okay.”
Bush Hager, Barbara Bush, Lauren Bush Lauren and Wendy Stapleton are serving as co-chairs of the third annual George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award on Tuesday, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m.
source: people.com
