Jenna Bush Hager has revealed the cute nickname her kids have for her.
If you’ve ever been handed an embarrassing nickname by your own children, the news anchor knows exactly how you feel.
The Today with Jenna & Sheinelle co-host revealed on Wednesday’s episode that her three kids, Mila, 13, Poppy, 10, and Hal, 6, have taken to calling her “Biggie.”
And she is not thrilled about it.
“They call me Biggie,” Hager told co-host Sheinelle Jones.
“They’re like, ‘OK, Biggie!’ And I’m like, ‘Excuse me?’ They’re like, ‘Whatever, Biggie!'”
The 44-year-old, who shares her children with husband Henry Chase Hager, said the nickname was brought home by the kids and she rather wished they’d left it at the door.
It gets worse.
The term, it turns out, is a shortening of “Big Back”, a slang phrase that Mila has apparently condensed into the single-word offender.
When Jones heard where it came from, she said it made the whole thing even worse.
Her initial reaction, “I’ve never heard that. That hurts my feelings”, was arguably the most relatable response of the segment.
Hager admitted she had a complicated reaction at first.
“Part of me at first found it to be … I like humour in words, so I was like, ‘Oh, that’s creative,'” she said.
But the amusement didn’t last long, particularly once she started imagining the nickname taking on a life of its own. “Stop calling everybody Biggie. It’s gonna spread,” she warned her daughter.
Her biggest concern, though, is six-year-old Hal inadvertently taking it into the classroom.
“I’m like, ‘Mila, stop saying this. Hal’s gonna go to school and his teacher’s gonna be like, “Now, Hal, please turn in your homework.”
And he’s gonna be like, “No way, Biggie!”‘” It’s the kind of scenario that’s funny right up until it actually happens.
This isn’t the first time Mila has put her mum firmly in her place.
Last month, Hager revealed that her eldest effectively banned her from attending volleyball games after one too many enthusiastic sideline moments.
“I got kicked out by my child,” she said, or more precisely, she was placed in what she called a “free zone” after letting out an ill-timed cheer mid-match.
“The score was 6 to 7, and I go, ‘Six seven!'” she recalled, before mimicking the icy glare Mila shot her way.
She ended up attending just the one game all season, and is now hoping to be “unfrozen” in time for next year.
Biggie, it seems, has some fence-mending to do.
