'Today' Show Host Jenna Bush Hager Recounts Horror of Losing Jewels at JFK

During Thursday's installment of Today With Hoda & Jenna, co-host Jenna Bush Hager recounted how she nearly lost ALL of her fine jewelry — including her sapphire and diamond engagement ring — at JFK Airport in New York City.

The 42-year-old daughter of former President George W. Bush recalled how she lost track of a bag of jewelry as she was "racing to a shoot" while on assignment for the Today show.

Hager explained to co-host Hoda Kotb, "I don't have much nice jewelry, but everything I had was in there."

When Hager finally arrived at the shoot, she realized her precious keepsakes were nowhere to be found.

“I was stressed," she said. "I get to the shoot and I’m looking around. I’m like, ‘Oh no, I had a whole bag of jewelry.’”

Hager quickly reached out to Jack, a member of the NBC morning show's security team.

She explained: “I said, ‘Jack, I just took off at JFK. I know it’s gone, but can you just see what the airport says?’"

In a stroke of good fortune, a fellow traveler had spotted the unattended bag and did the right thing.

“Some lovely man who I’ve never met returned it to security,” she said.

Even though the story had a happy ending, Hager didn't share it with her husband of 15 years, Henry Chase Hager. He only learned about the incident on Thursday morning — at the same time as Kotb and the show's five million viewers.

“I couldn’t even tell Henry because if I lost our engagement ring, it’s priceless,” she said. “So, I harbored a secret from Henry, too, which was hard.”

Jenna and her twin sister, Barbara, were 20 years old when their dad, George W. Bush was inaugurated as President of the US in January of 2001. Henry popped the question to Jenna in 2007, and the couple tied the knot the following year. They have three children.

Credit: Photo by Moody College of Communication from Austin, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.