Jenna Bush Hager Nearly Misses ‘Today’ Show After Train Delay — but Makes It Thanks to Coffee and Taylor Swift
Jenna Bush Hager made it to Today with Hoda & Jenna in the nick of time.
The former first daughter shared her journey to Thursday’s talk show in an Instagram reel, titled, “Get ready with me: train delay edition!”
In the video, Bush Hager, 41, gave her Instagram followers a play-a-play of how she almost missed her co-hosting duties.
“Hello. It’s 9:16. I’m stuck in traffic. I was in Philadelphia, I took a train, which was delayed,” she shared. “The show starts, to my knowledge, at 10, less than 45 [minutes]. Say a prayer.”
More than 20 minutes later, she arrived at the studio, where her glam team was waiting to do her hair and makeup for the show. “It’s 9:40. 20 minutes ’til air time,” she said.
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She then gave a special shoutout to her hair and makeup team, who did her “glam in 10 minutes!”
After successfully making it on the air in time, the television personality recounted her early morning adventures.
“Well, the train continued to get delayed, and delayed, and delayed, and I was like, ‘Uh oh,'” she told co-host Sheinelle Jones, who was filling in for Hoda Kotb. “Should I get out of Newark and take an Uber? What should I do?”
Jones responded, “What did you do?”
“Well, I just thought about my girl Hoda. And you know, what is she’s doing? She’s rolling with it. I thought, ‘What’s the worst thing that’s gonna happen?'”
Jones applauded her for keeping her cool amid a chaotic morning, to which Bush Hager shared, “I just had a sip of my coffee, I listened to some Taylor Swift and here I am.”
She also captioned her post: “Running on ☕️, running on Tswift. ❤️”
Bush Hager isn’t the only Today employee who’s had a close call with arriving late. In August, her coworker Savannah Guthrie was also almost late for her anchoring duties on the Today show after she overslept.
Guthrie, 51, documented the experience on social media, revealing on her Instagram Story that she “overslept big time” and was still in the car at 6:34 a.m. local time (Today airs live starting at 7 a.m. ET).
By 6:40 a.m., she was in the hair and makeup chair, according to her Story, and by 6:54 a.m.-ish, walked into the studio.
“I’m going to make it!” she cheered as she sat aside Craig Melvin in time for the local news tease, her co-host remarking her timing was “amazing.”
Melvin later called Guthrie’s tardiness out at the top of Thursday’s Today. After she noted that Kotb had the morning off, he joked, “You almost had the morning off as well.”
As Guthrie laughed at Melvin’s statement, he then revealed to those watching: “Savannah Guthrie rolled in about 15 minutes ago. She overslept! She is normal!”
“15 minutes ago with no hair, no makeup. It was a terrifying sight but some miracle workers upstairs rolled me in and I’m very happy to be here,” Guthrie told Melvin, 43, before he added, “We’re very happy to have you.”
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