Jenna Bush Hager and Savannah Guthrie are close friends both on and off the small screen.
The besties celebrated the first day of their week-long Today With Jenna & Friends cohosting gig on Monday, May 19. Bush Hager, 43, and Guthrie, 53, reflected on their longtime friendship in a sweet video package, during which they opened up about being godmothers to each other’s kids.
“When Jenna asked me to be Hal’s godmother, I just felt so special,” Guthrie said in the clip. “I mean, it’s the greatest compliment a person could receive.” Bush Hager shares her daughters Mila, 12, and Poppy, 9, and son Hal, 5, with her husband, Henry Hager.
Guthrie later returned the heartfelt gesture by asking Bush Hager to be her daughter Vale’s godmother. The Today anchor shares Vale, 10, and her son Charley, 8, with her husband, Michael Feldman.
“It made perfect sense that the person that I speak to faith most about would be in [Hal’s] life to help shape him in that way,” Bush Hager stated. “And then, when she asked me to be Vale’s godmother, it was really beautiful.”
For Guthrie, she wanted the act to signify the closeness between them. “I know she knows what it means to me,” she shared. “I also wanted to just say to Jenna, ‘You are one of my closest friends and I am handing you my heart,’ ‘cause my little girl is my heart.”
The pair’s connection began long before they joined Today, as Guthrie reported on Bush Hager’s Texas wedding for NBC News in 2008. In Monday’s video package, Guthrie said she and Bush Hager “clicked right away” when she joined the Today family in 2011. (Bush Hager first joined Today as a correspondent in 2009.)
“There was something, sort of, in our DNA that spoke to each other,” Bush Hager explained of the pair’s bond. “And I felt like even though I was meeting her for the first time, I’d known her for many, many years.”
In addition to sharing similar senses of humor and living close to each other in New York City, having kids at around the same time helped their friendship grow deeper. Guthrie gave birth to Vale in 2014, one year before Bush Hager welcomed Poppy.
“We’ve literally raised our children together. They have, like, a sister relationship, almost,” Bush Hager said of her and Guthrie’s daughters. “And our kids went to the same school, so we would fill in for one another. If I was on a shoot, I would say, ‘Oh, my gosh. I’m running late. Can you pick up the kids from the bus?’”
Guthrie, for her part, added, “We came to really rely on each other. I think we both love that this friendship is now multi-generational and it’s well beyond us.”
Following the video package, Guthrie called Bush Hager her “favorite subject” to talk about, while Bush Hager said the “luckiest thing” about her job on Today was becoming friends with the anchor.
Bush Hager has hosted the fourth hour of Today with a lineup of celebrity guest hosts since Hoda Kotb exited the NBC morning show in January. Guthrie will continue to sit alongside Bush Hager through Friday, May 23.
