Jenna Bush Hager opened up about body-shaming as she shared a vulnerable story from her preteen years.
“I had a boyfriend in seventh grade that broke up with me after we went swimming together, after he saw me in a bathing suit,” the TODAY with Hoda & Jenna co-host told Hoda Kotb on the show this week.
While Jenna feels confident in her own skin now, she says that early experience left a mark.
“Even sometimes now, when I feel great — three kids, three C-sections, I feel really in my body, and I think of it as a beautiful thing — I’ll walk in the pool and I’ll have a moment of, like —” she said, ending with a wince.
She added that there have “been times when we’ve done this show where people have written about our body, and it takes you back to that moment.”
The topic of body-shaming came up as Hoda and Jenna discussed a recent TikTok video posted by Ariana Grande.
In the video, the “Thank U, Next” singer, 29, asked people to stop commenting on her current weight — whether to criticize, or to share concern about her thinness.
“I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” Grande said.
She added that a healthy body looks different for everyone.
“I know, personally for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body,” she said. “I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy. But, that in fact wasn’t my healthy.”
Jenna said Grande’s video is a reminder that even well-intentioned comments about someone’s weight, such as words of concern, can cause harm.
“We need to stop commenting on women’s bodies. Period,” she said. “You said it perfectly: We’re in our body. We know.”
She also recommended that people stop and think before commenting on anyone’s body, even if the comment is meant to be supportive.
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