Fans of Today and the Hallmark Channel might be surprised by Jenna Bush Hager’s pick to win Super Bowl LIX.
“I’m rooting for the [Philadelphia] Eagles this year,” Bush Hager, 43, revealed on the Friday, February 7, episode of Today With Jenna & Friends. “I rooted for the [Kansas City] Chiefs last year, and I just believe in, you know, always switching it up.”
She agreed with her guest cohost Ego Nwodim’s comment that she wants “everyone to win,” but not before clarifying her stance on the other team’s biggest supporter. “I’m not rooting against Taylor Swift,” she stated, referring to the pop star’s relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. “Let me just put that out there.”
Nwodim, 36, backed up Bush Hager, adding, “Swifties, we don’t want any trouble.”
Prior to backing the Eagles, Bush Hager made her acting debut in the Hallmark Channel’s Chiefs-inspired Christmas movie, Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story. The film follows a superfan named Alana (Hunter King) as she catches feelings for the Chiefs’ Director of Fan Engagement (Tyler Hynes) while competing in the team’s “Fan of the Year” contest with her family.
Bush Hager was announced to be joining the film’s cast live on Today in July 2024. “First of all, I thought it was about Taylor and Travis and thought I got the Taylor role, but I didn’t. Shocker,” she joked at the time, noting she couldn’t spill any details on her character.
Ahead of the film’s November 2024 premiere, Bush Hager gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at her day on set filming her role as the Chiefs’ “emcee,” which included hanging out with Travis’ mom, Donna Kelce. Mama Kelce, 72, also cameoed in the movie as a Kansas City restaurant manager named Donna.
“You should write a note and I’ll put it in Travis’ locker,” Donna told Bush Hager in the BTS clip, which aired on a November 2024 episode of Today. In her letter, Bush Hager thanked Travis, 35, for making her daughters Mila, 11, and Poppy, 9, “love football” and told the athlete to come visit her and Hoda Kotb on Today. Bush Hager shares her daughters and son, Hal, 5, with her husband, Henry Hager. (Kotb, 60, exited the NBC morning show after nearly 30 years working for the network last month.)
After filming her role over the summer, Bush Hager exclusively told Us Weekly in August 2024 that she had not received a reply to her letter from Travis. “But I’ll write Mama Kelce right now,” she quipped.
While appearing in the movie was “so much fun” for the TV personality, she also warned that filming a holiday movie in the middle of the summer was “not for the weak of heart.” She explained, “It felt like 115 degrees in the stadium. It was like a dome of heat, and I was wearing a cashmere wool coat. I said to the darling actress — her name is Hunter King — I was like, ‘Wait, is it always like this? How can you even remember your lines?’ ‘Cause you’re, like, roasting.”
Bush Hager shared more details about her Super Bowl LIX plans on Friday’s Jenna & Friends. “I have a very famous queso recipe that you should try sometime. … It’s on the back of the Velveeta box, but I add my own, sort of, fanciness, like ground beef, taco beef, a can of beans,” she told Nwodim. “Chopped avocado on top, a little cilantro garnish. It’s everything. So, I’ll be making that and some nachos.”
Read the full article here