Jenna Bush Hager Recalls Throwing a Steve Madden Shoe at Sister Barbara’s Head as a Teen: ‘I Feel So Bad’

Bush Hager told the story during an event with author Coco Mellors, whose novel is the September 2024 ‘Read with Jenna’ book club pick

Jenna Bush Hager has some stories to share about sisterhood.

The Today with Hoda & Jenna cohost, 42, moderated a discussion with author Coco Mellors on Sept. 25, at an event hosted by Threads at McNally Jackson Rockefeller Center in New York. Mellors’ novel, Blue Sisters, is the September selection for Bush Hager’s Read with Jenna book club — and the sibling-centric story prompted Bush Hager to share an incident that happened between her and her twin sister, Barbara Bush, when they were teenagers.

"I once threw a Steve Madden mule at her head,” Bush Hager told the audience. “Remember how heavy they were?”

“It started to bleed. I was like, ‘If you tell Mom and Dad that I did this, I will tell them,’ whatever the bad thing that she [did], which was way worse,” Bush Hager said. (Jenna and Barbara's parents are former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush.)

“I feel so bad about it, but it's so interesting because I do think our sisterhoods, our siblinghoods, do affect the relationships we choose later,” Bush Hager said. “If you have a partner, a sister that makes you feel brave and empowered, then you're going to hopefully find that in a partner later in life."

At the event, which was also in collaboration with Threads’ reading community BookThreads, Bush Hager told PEOPLE that she was particularly drawn to Mellors’ novel because of its family dynamics. The book follows three sisters who are mourning the recent death of their fourth sibling, and who return to the New York City apartment where they grew up.

Related: Jenna Bush Hager Shares the Sweet Moment Her Daughter Mila Met Judy Blume: 'How Amazing Is That?’ (Exclusive)

“I mean, I think one of the themes that I'm always drawn towards in literature, really in life, is sisterhood,” Bush Hager said. “Because having a twin really has informed every decision I've ever made.”

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During her discussion with Mellors, Bush also shared that one of the inspirations for Blue Sisters, Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel Little Women, also held sentimental meaning to her.

“The reason I love this book so much is my grandma, Jenna, whom I'm named after, who grew up in a small town in west Texas, did not graduate from college, but loved to read,” Bush Hager said. “I think she secretly wanted to be Jo, but the circumstances weren't that way for her. But [she] loved to read [and] read that book to me. Sometimes you're like, ‘Why does a book hit you so hard?’ I was like, ‘This reminds me so much of Little Women, and those strong sisters.’”

Related: Jenna Bush Hager Says Twin Sister Barbara ‘Makes Me Feel Brave and Empowered’ (Exclusive)

Bush Hager is staying busy within the book world too. On Sept. 26, she announced her new podcast, Open Book with Jenna, which will include “intimate, inspiring and entertaining conversations with celebrities, experts, friends, authors, and book lovers,” per its Spotify description. Bush Hager also told PEOPLE that she is sharing her love of reading with her sister too.

“I recommend books to her all the time. And she sends, well, she doesn't send books to me,” Bush Hager said, clarifying, “Because I can't read anything else, because I have to work. But she's reading a book I just sent her. She read Blue Sisters, and she loved it.”

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Today, Bush Hager says she is inspired by her sister.

“I don't think I'd have this job. I don't know [that] I would've started this book club,” Bush Hager says. “She makes me feel brave and empowered, because she was my first audience. She was the first hand I held. And so I always felt supported, even when we were teens, and we threw shoes at each other's head.”

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