Jenna Bush Hager Recalls an Injury-Inducing Fight With Her Sister Barbara & It Proves All Siblings Are the Same

Some of my earliest memories are fighting with my older brother. And not just arguing — pulling hair, biting, scratching, wrestling. It was all fair game! Before you think we were some wild kids (which, fair), even celebrities had similar experiences with their siblings. In fact, Jenna Bush Hager (the 42-year-old daughter of former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush) recently recalled a story of when she hurt her twin sister Barbara Pierce Bush during a sibling spat. It really shows how all kids are the same!

The Today With Hoda & Jenna co-host recalled the story at a Sept. 25 discussion with author Coco Mellors about her book Blue Sisters, which is the September selection for the Read With Jenna Book Club. When she and Barbara were teenagers, they got into it — and Jenna ended up hurting her sister.

“I once threw a Steve Madden mule at her head,” she told the audience, per PEOPLE. “Remember how heavy they were? It started to bleed. I was like, ‘If you tell Mom and Dad that I did this, I will tell them,’ whatever the bad thing that she [did], which was way worse.”

Throwing a shoe at her and then threatening to tell mom and dad? Barbara must have done something, really, really bad to warrant that kind of treatment! I can only imagine how President Bush would have reacted to that whole situation if he’d known about it.

“I feel so bad about it,” Jenna said, reflecting on that time. “But it’s so interesting because I do think our sisterhoods, our siblinghoods, do affect the relationships we choose later. If you have a partner, a sister that makes you feel brave and empowered, then you’re going to hopefully find that in a partner later in life.”

Aww, how sweet is that? The talkshow host also credits her sister with helping her find her dream career. “I don’t think I’d have this job. I don’t know [that] I would’ve started this book club,” she said. “[Barbara] makes me feel brave and empowered, because she was my first audience. She was the first hand I held. And so I always felt supported, even when we were teens, and we threw shoes at each other’s head.” Ok, now I’m bawling. My brother and I are super close now, too, so maybe there’s something about letting your kids battle it out instead of mediating?

Now, Jenna is a mom herself. She shares kids Mila, 11, Poppy, 9, and Hal, 5, with husband Henry Chase Hager. Earlier this month, she shared a back-to-school picture of her kids, who are in 6^th grade, 3^rd grade, and pre-K. “Does it not look like he’s either my father in a 5-year-old body or being held captive — he’s like, ‘Should I go or should I not go?’” Jenna joked on an episode of TODAY.

“Mila’s like, ‘How am I going to find 6th grade? I have to walk around, how am I going to find my class?’” Jenna added. “I was like, ‘I’m telling you, I walked in, my knees were shaking.’ And Hal was like, ‘You were?’ Because it’s OK to be nervous!” Such good advice!

In a previous interview with SheKnows, Jenna opened up more about her parenting philosophy. “We just try to do the best we can,” she told us. “I picture how I want my household to be, which is one where people feel safe and happy, and loved. And then we try to just kind of back into that.”

These celebrity parents are on double duty!