The ‘Today with Jenna & Friends’ host was getting another ear piercing live on air with Scarlett Johansson when she made the confession
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Jenna Bush Hager is no stranger to piercings.
When the Today with Jenna & Friends host got a new ear piercing live on the air with guest host Scarlett Johansson on Thursday, Jan. 23, she shared that she’s had multiple piercings in her ear and even one outside of the ear.
“I have five here,” Bush Hager, 43, said pointing to her ears. “I also had my belly button for a brief period. It got infected. It wasn’t great.”
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This isn’t the first time the Today co-host has talked about the fated piercing. Back in July 2024, she chatted with then-co-host Hoda Kotb about getting her belly button pierced back when she was in college.
“I’ve done it once. I have a nice little scar that reminds me of those wild days,” she said at the time. “I was actually studying abroad at Oxford, and I [wanted to be] rebellious. And there wasn’t much I could do besides pierce my belly button. So I did it.”
The mother of two said that both of her parents, former president George W. Bush and Laura Bush were “disturbed” by the piercing, “when it became infected and was red and pus-y.”
And that wasn’t the only time Bush Hager was adventurous with piercings. In September 2021, she also told Kotb that her twin sister, Barbara Bush, helped her with one of her ear piercings.
“My sister pierced one of these with a safety pin and an apple,” Bush Hager said. “She iced it to numb it… Once she tried to pierce her own belly button. I know, I shouldn’t. Sorry, Barbara. She just stabbing… I remember she was listening to a Led Zeppelin album and my dad was like, ‘What are you doing?’ “
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She’s also previously gotten ear piercings with co-host Savannah Guthrie and Today alum Natalie Morales. On Thursday’s show, Bush Hager and Johansson both got “best friend” ear piercings live on the air together while holding hands.
“I have a lot of piercings,” Johansson detailed at the time. “When I was a kid, I just was into piercings and then I had my eyebrow pierced, my septum, my everything. It was just a thing. And so I think it’s been a minute since I got a piercing, so I’m excited to do it with you.”
