The Moment
Jenna Bush Hager turned a C-section into a Spotify saga, and honestly, every mom I know just sat up a little straighter.
On the December 22 episode of Today With Jenna and Friends, the 44-year-old TV host shared that she marched into the operating room for one of her three births armed with a carefully curated “birthing playlist.”
Minor catch: she was having a C-section.
Jenna says that, spinal tap in and ready to go, she called out to the surgeon: “Sir! Can we put on my playlist?!” According to her retelling, the doctor reminded her she was, in fact, about to be in surgery and did not exactly leap to become DJ OR.
That did not stop her. While her husband Henry Hager allegedly stared in horror at his wife’s open abdomen, Jenna says she kept asking him to skip songs and make it “a little more relaxing.” His response, as she tells it: “Are you kidding? Your stomach is completely cut open.”
Sitting beside her, co-host Savannah Guthrie joked that it might have been a good thing Jenna was more focused on the music than on the whole “organ being taken out” situation, as Jenna herself put it.
The story comes as Jenna’s work life shifts too: she recently announced that longtime colleague Sheinelle Jones is stepping in as her new permanent co-host, following Hoda Kotb stepping down from that hour earlier this year.
The Take
I have thoughts, and if you’ve ever given birth under fluorescent lights, I’m guessing you do too.
On its face, Jenna’s story is classic overshare comedy: privileged TV host wants perfect soundtrack while her insides are on display. Easy meme material, lots of eye rolls, husbands everywhere nodding along with Henry.
But underneath the punchline, this is really about something a lot of women over 40 know painfully well: birth can feel like a medical takeover, not a life event you’re directing. A playlist isn’t just music; it’s the illusion of control when everything else is happening to you.
We joke about it, because the alternative is admitting how scary it is to be strapped to a table, numb from the chest down, with strangers in masks talking over your body like it’s a group project. Of course she wanted her playlist. I’d want a dimmer switch, better lighting, and a glass of wine if they’d let me bring it.
The doctor’s alleged annoyance? Also human. Surgeons are literally responsible for keeping two people alive. The idea of timing a Beyonce track to the first cry might feel… unhelpful. There are safety rules in operating rooms for a reason, and sometimes that means personal vibes get benched.
So what we’re really watching here is the tension between two truths:
- Birth is a major medical procedure that has to prioritize safety.
- Birth is also one of the most personal, emotional moments of a parent’s life.
Trying to make a C-section feel like a spa day is like putting aromatherapy in an airport security line: it doesn’t fix the stress, but it makes the loss of control slightly more bearable.
And then there’s Sheinelle Jones entering the picture. She’s stepping into this co-host role just seven months after losing her husband to brain cancer, by her own account on the show. Hoda Kotb reportedly told her this move would be good for her kids and her career. That’s not just workplace chatter; that’s another woman who has survived big life storms, passing the torch.
So you have two women on TV: one laughing about demanding the right song while her organs are being rearranged, the other quietly rebuilding a life after grief. That’s the full emotional range of midlife womanhood in America, squeezed between commercial breaks.
Receipts
Confirmed:
- Jenna Bush Hager described making a “birthing playlist” and asking to play it during a C-section on the December 22, 2025 episode of Today With Jenna and Friends, alongside Savannah Guthrie.
- She recounted asking her husband Henry to change songs mid-surgery and quoted him saying some version of, “Are you kidding? Your stomach is completely cut open,” according to the broadcast.
- Jenna and Henry share three children: daughters Mila (12), Poppy (10), and son Hal (6), as stated on-air and in a December 23, 2025 U.S. lifestyle report.
- Jenna announced that Sheinelle Jones is her new permanent co-host on their hour of Today, replacing Hoda Kotb, who stepped down from that slot earlier in the year.
- Sheinelle Jones has publicly shared that her husband, Uche Ojeh, died of glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, about seven months before the co-host announcement.
Unverified / Framed As Opinion:
- That the doctor was definitively “unamused” by the playlist request; we only have Jenna’s humorous retelling, not the physician’s version.
- That the playlist itself was “controversial” beyond social-media debate and audience reactions; no formal complaints or hospital pushback have been reported.
Sources (human-readable): December 22, 2025 broadcast of Today With Jenna and Friends on NBC; U.S. lifestyle feature published December 23, 2025 summarizing Jenna Bush Hager’s on-air story and co-host announcement.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If you lost track of the Bush twins after the White House years, quick refresher: Jenna Bush Hager is one of former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush’s daughters. She’s built her own lane as a bestselling author and longtime morning-show personality, co-hosting a later hour of NBC’s Today focused on lifestyle and pop culture.
She’s married to Henry Hager, has three kids, and has made a second career out of being disarmingly candid about parenting, marriage, and everything that happens when cameras are supposedly off. Sheinelle Jones, her newly announced permanent co-host, is an anchor and correspondent who has been part of the Today family for years and recently went through the loss of her husband, which she has addressed carefully but openly on-air.
What’s Next
Jenna’s C-section playlist confession is going to live online forever as a very specific kind of mom content: one part chaos, one part coping mechanism. Expect it to resurface every time someone on social media asks, “What’s the most unhinged thing you did in labor?”
On the show side, all eyes will be on how Jenna and Sheinelle shape their new dynamic. With Hoda Kotb’s blessing reportedly ringing in Sheinelle’s ears and Jenna leaning into these raw, funny stories, their hour of Today is poised to become even more personal and emotionally driven.
Behind the jokes, there’s a real cultural shift happening: more women on national TV are talking plainly about birth, surgery, grief, and recovery. The details may be outrageous (curating a vibe while your abdomen is open!), but the subtext is serious-claiming space to be fully human, even in the most clinical, controlled situations.
The question now is less “Should you have a playlist in the OR?” and more: How much say should patients get in how their big medical moments feel, as long as safety comes first?
Your turn: If you’ve been through birth or major surgery, would you rather stay laser-focused on the procedure, or, like Jenna, control the atmosphere any way you can-music and all?
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