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Brooke Shields once walked in on first lady Barbara Bush in her dressing gown, and she may never recover.
The 59-year-old co-hosted the Thursday, March 20, episode of Today with Jenna and Friends, where she told a wild story to host Jenna Bush Hager about her experiences with Bush Hager’s late grandparents, President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara.
“I met your grandparents in the ‘80s. I was so young,” Shields recalled, reflecting on her early career moment. “I was invited to the White House for Easterseals.”
Shields explained that she formed a unique relationship with George Sr., telling Bush Hager, “I never had a grandfather, so since I was quite young, he would give me boy advice and say, ‘Okay, I like that one. I don’t like this one.’ It was a very sweet relationship that I needed to have and hadn’t had with anyone else.”
However, it was later in her life, when Shields become a mom to daughters Rowan Henchy, now 21, and Grier Henchy, now 18, that she had her most memorable experience with the former first couple.
“I was doing a movie in Boston, and I get a phone call. Doesn’t say who he is. Literally says, ‘Excuse me, young lady. I hear you’re in the area. If you do not come to Kennebunkport, you are in trouble,’ “ Shields recalled. “And it, of course, was Papa Bush.”
The actress said she agreed to bring her kids up to the Bush family’s Kennebunkport, Maine, compound and stay there.
But while she was a guest in the Bushes’ home, Shields happened upon a big problem.
“I sneak downstairs to do the puzzle, go get a beer, and as I get a beer, water is flooding into the living room from the ocean, from over the rocks,” the Mother of the Bride star said.
Shields quickly leapt into action, “shutting all the doors” and “running to get the towels” to soak up the flooded water.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to tell somebody,’ “ she recalled thinking. “So I go to the downstairs bedroom and with the fear of God…”
Bush Hager interjected to ask if her grandparents were asleep when Shields knocked on their door, but the actress explained, “No, they had their little TV dinners, their little barcaloungers, their little La-Z-Boys, they were watching SVU.”
She admitted to being mortified at seeing Barbara in her “dressing gown,” and averting her eyes out of decorum.
“I said, ‘I just want to let you know, excuse me!’ “ Shields remembered. “‘I just want to tell you, I think the house might have flooded, but I think I’ve got it.’ And she’s like, ‘Come in here! Come in here!’ She’s like, ‘George, maybe Brooke can answer this question. Sit down.’ “
The surreal moment had Shields sitting down on her knees in between the former president and first lady’s barcaloungers as they watched the Law & Order spin-off show.
“She goes, ‘Okay, ask her, ask her.’ And he goes, ‘Well, who do you think did it?’ “ Shields continued, laughing as she recalled the president’s question. “And I was like, ‘I don’t know who did it, but it’s probably the person who you think least did it.’ And I sat there in between [them] and we watched the rest of SVU and I was like, ‘This is a moment of my life that was so special.’ “
As for the flood, Shields added that she was able to keep the living room structure from warping because of her efforts with the towels.
“She’s like, ‘Honey, she saved our house!’ And I was like, ‘Well, I wouldn’t go that far,’ “ Shields added.
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While discussing the unexpected role that George played in Shields’ life, Bush Hager said that it doesn’t totally surprise her.
“It’s so interesting, he was that person for a lot of people,” Bush Hager told Shields. “He was a surrogate dad for President [Bill] Clinton who didn’t know his dad.”
George died in November 2018 at the age of 94, only a few months after his wife, Barbara, died at the age of 92.
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