Jenna Bush Hager Announces Maternity Leave From 'Today' Show

Jenna Bush Hager is taking a break from her role on Today, she announced Friday, taking time off [...]

By Anna Rumer

Jenna Bush Hager is taking a break from her role on Today, she announced Friday, taking time off on maternity leave as she prepares for the birth of her third child, a baby boy, with husband Henry Hager.

"Today is my last day!" she said Friday, as per PEOPLE. "I want to thank all of you guys for the last four months. I can't believe it's been four months, but to share this joy with all of you, with you Willie [Geist], with everybody that's filled in … all of you that have cheered us on as a show and cheered me on personally, it means the world. I feel so grateful to work in a place with people that lift me up every day."

Bush Hager's co-host Hoda Kotb, also on maternity leave video chatted into Today to wish her co-host well while taking time away to care for daughters Haley, 2, and Hope, 3 months.

"JBH, I hope you have the best maternity leave," she said. "You are going to have so much fun playing with your babies and enjoying your time. I hope you treasure every single second of it. You know I've been treasuring every single second of it. I can't wait to come back to work and hang with you on the set, but for this moment, you spend time with your children, you live in this moment."

Going on maternity leave at the same time as her good friend means a lot, Bush Hager added.

"To be able to do it with Hoda, to have this special moment together, to create this baby, our show, and then these babies, has been a really beautiful moment in our lives," she said. "We appreciate all of you who have supported us through it all."

"I just feel overcome with gratitude that we get to expand our family. I'm obviously a little hormonal," she added of her tearing up. "But it's a beautiful time in my life, it's a beautiful time in Hoda's life."

The Bush Hager family announced they were expecting a third child in April, adding to daughters Mila, 6, and Poppy, 3.

"Yes, I'm pregnant!" she said on Today at the time. "I'm very pregnant. I don't know how you missed this! I've needed seven or eight sports bras."

Photo credit: Getty Images

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