On March 21, Jenna Bush Hager opened up about her experience with an ectopic pregnancy, which occurs when a fertilized egg starts to grow outside of the uterus. At the time, she was looking forward to becoming a mother for the first time but ended up having to put that dream on hold for a little while.
In a recent TODAY show segment, she was joined by her personal trainer, Amanda Bartolomeo – who also experienced an ectopic pregnancy in the past. “We both realized we both had had ectopic pregnancies. I had one years ago before I got pregnant with Mila,” Jenna said – Mila is now 9 years old.
As a result of ‘six or seven stomach surgeries’ due to several C-sections, appendicitis, and the ectopic pregnancy, Jenna hadn’t focused too much on her core health – which is where Barolomeo came into the picture. Amanda helped Jenna focus on her core not only physically but also mentally and emotionally.
"When I first met Amanda, we started talking about finding your core and what that means metaphorically for women and obviously, literally," Jenna said – adding that she had ‘sort of lost that part of me. “But also, as a woman, it was a really hard thing to go through,” she explained – referring to her ectopic pregnancy.
Amanda chimed in and expressed the importance of opening up to others who went through similar experiences. When she went through an ectopic pregnancy, she was surprised to learn how common it is and felt relieved to know there was a community of ‘women who can show up for each other.’
Today, Jenna is a mother to three beautiful children – Mila, 9, Poppy, 7, and Henry, 3. She has been married to Henry Chase Hager since May 10, 2008, when they tied the knot in a private ceremony at her parent’s ranch. She admitted that being a mother is tiring, but she still finds a way to stay healthy.
“Sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh gosh, I’m so tired, the kids were up all night’ – there’s like a million excuses, but the second I would meet Amanda, she was smiling, and we would start dancing. It was like whatever was hanging on us from the days before or night before would release,” she said of her workouts.
Jenna Bush Hager Talks About Weight Loss and Staying Healthy
At the beginning of her interview with Amanda Bartolomeo, Jenna Bush Hager talked about her wellness journey and how she has maintained a positive outlook on her appearance. Even when she was a child or a teenager, she felt like she needed to be skinnier, but found that wellness is much more than that.
“I think overall, I feel pretty good about myself. I feel like I’ve put emphasis on the right things. And even the little pictures of myself as a little girl that may not have felt the cutest, it was like, well, she was the funniest, was smart, and had a huge heart. And those are the things that I try to emphasize,” she said.
She recalled a recent time when she was in Texas with her family, and her sister was reading through her personal diary. One of her entries, from when she was 10 years old, was her New Year’s Resolution – she wanted to lose weight. Her mother, Barbara Bush, was heartbroken to know she felt that way at her age.
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She also talked about how her mother never talked about weight, never talked about how she looked, and would never self-hate in front of her and her sister. “I want to make sure I’m modeling that type of love to my kids,” one of which is around the same age she was when she wrote that diary entry about losing weight.
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