Jenna Bush Hager discusses plans for 'next chapter' after tenure on 'Today' ends

By 
 August 7, 2025

The mainstream media landscape has seen a number of shakeups and high-profile departures in recent months, and there may be yet another one looming on the horizon

As the Daily Mail reports, longtime Today show stalwart Jenna Bush Hager revealed this week that she is looking ahead to what the “next chapter” may hold, particularly when her time on the NBC morning program “comes to a close.”

End in sight?

The former first daughter, who has been an enduring presence on Today for more than 15 years, opened up to viewers about her future during Wednesday’s broadcast.

Though she made no mention of an imminent end to her tenure on the show, Bush Hager acknowledged that he has been giving a fair amount of thought to what she would like to do when that time arrives.

Bush Hager revealed that she has a “dream” of leaving New York City behind and relocating with her husband and kids to Austin, Texas, where she spent much of her youth.

Part of Bush Hager’s vision is to see her children, Mila, 12, Poppy, nine, and Hal, six, attend a “big public high school” just as she did

“I think everybody should have chapters in their lives,” she noted, adding that she would like to help her kids experience a “different life” to the one they would likely have in the Big Apple, one it would seem, that more closely approximates her own teenage years.

Times of transition

If Bush Hager were to depart Today in the near future, it would mark yet another pivotal transition for the network morning staple.

Earlier this year, longtime host Hoda Kotb bid farewell to the program after 17 years, a decision spurred in large part by a desire to spend more time with her two young children.

“They deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have. I feel like we only have a finite amount of time,” Kotb declared.

When she announced her plans several months before her final show, Kotb explained, “I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new.”

Kotb referenced a key moment from her 60th birthday party, recalling, “I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, ‘This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.’ And I thought it can’t get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on.”

Changes afoot?

In the wake of Kotb’s departure and Bush Hager’s recent musings, fans of Today are surely wondering whether their morning routine is poised for additional transformation in the near future, particularly in light of the sporadic -- and sometimes mysterious -- absences of another prominent figure on the program, Savannah Guthrie.

With Guthrie noticeably absent again on Monday, viewers expressed concern online, prompting reassurances from the host herself -- via Instagram photos of scenic East Coast vistas -- that she was simply away on vacation with family.

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