George W. Bush welcomes first grandson

“Welcome to the world my darling Henry Harold “Hal” Hager! Hal came into the world Friday, August 2, 2019 at 9:02am and our life has never been sweeter,” Jenna posted.

Jenna reported that she and her husband were very excited, but her father was over the moon about his first grandson. “[It] be nice for him to have a little fishing buddy as well,” she said of her dad’s affinity for his grandchildren, also noting that he adored “our girls.”

“@laurawbush and I are thrilled to welcome Henry Harold Hager to our family. We are happy for the proud parents, @jennabhager and Henry. And pleased that Mila and Poppy have a little brother to love. We thank God that mom and baby are healthy, and we look forward to many years of loving the boy known as Hal,” Bush, 73, posted to his Instagram account on Monday.

Jenna is the twin sister of Barbara Pierce Bush, both 37, who wed screenwriter Craig Coyne in 2018. The couple does not have any children at this time. Barbara and Jenna co-wrote a book called Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life, which was published in 2017. The women are the only children of George W. Bush and his wife Laura, 72.

The former president reportedly gave some pushback on the name of the new family addition, joking that the child should be named “George.”

“My dad was a little mad that the name wasn’t George but [was] just kidding,” Bush Hager, 37, said in a Monday phone interview on Today. But her dad wasn’t really that disappointed: “He said [Henry] was a cool name,” she said.

Jenna noted that it was her two daughters, Mila, 6, and Poppy, 4, who aided in naming their new baby brother. “We weren’t exactly sure about the name, but then his big sisters arrived and they called him Hal Pal,” the new mom of three said, “So we thought, ‘This is just perfect!'”

“[They’re] crazy about him,” Bush Hager said of her daughters’ affinity for newborn Hal, “[They’re] just so thrilled that they have a little baby brother all of their own.”