A DIANE SAWYER EXCLUSIVE: FIRST DAUGHTER JENNA BUSH SITS DOWN FOR HER FIRST IN-DEPTH TELEVISION INTERVIEW, AIRING FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 ON ABC NEWS' "20/20"
In her first television interview, Jenna Bush speaks candidly with Diane Sawyer about life as the first daughter, her engagement to Henry Hager, her work with UNICEF and her emotional new book, "Ana's Story." Now a 25-year-old elementary school teacher, the President's daughter also speaks openly about her dad, how she feels about the war and growing up in a fishbowl. The interview will air on "20/20," FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
Sawyer travels to Jamaica, where Bush talks to children about tolerance, dismantling stereotypes and addressing stigmas associated with HIV AIDS. During the interview, she tells Sawyer about her job with UNICEF, where she taught in four countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. She documented the lives of kids living in exclusion, which means living in extreme poverty, with HIV AIDS, in abusive households and without access to school or medical care. It was through that experience that she met a woman she calls "Ana," a 17-year-old mother living with HIV who inspired Bush to write a book based on her life.
The following are partial excerpts from Diane Sawyer's interview with Jenna Bush:
(News organizations using excerpts must credit ABC NEWS "20/20," airing Friday, September 28)
ON HER FIANCE, HENRY:
JENNA BUSH: "Henry's my boyfriend, my fianc�. I don't, we don't like to use the word fianc�, though."
DIANE SAWYER: "To somebody who's never met him, describe him"
JENNA BUSH: "He's very smart. He's a hard worker. He's open-minded. He's extremely outdoorsy. If he could spend every day outside he would. He's very into the environment, and he was as a child, he hiked a lot. And so now he's trying to find a job where he can support the environment and, and be outdoors. And, so he's a lot of fun. He's very supportive. He's great."
DIANE SAWYER: "What was it about him? First time you saw him?"
JENNA BUSH: "We were good friends at the beginning, and, did, I did say, he walked in, I said, �Of course, the cute guy on the campaign has a girlfriend.'" Um, and that was him. And so we just were friends for a while."
DIANE SAWYER: "Your mom said he proposed in Acadia National Park."
JENNA BUSH: "Yes, he did. We, we were on a hike. We hiked Cadillac Mountain, which is the tallest peak on the northeast. Um, it's supposedly where the sun first hits the United States."
JENNA BUSH: "We got up at four in the morning�I did not want to go hiking at four in the morning. It was freezing. But we got up, and we hiked in the dark for an hour and a half, and then when we got towards the top, with the sunrise, he asked me."
ON THE RING:
JENNA BUSH: "It's his great-grandmother's�and then he reset it�I got to read about his great-grandmother and great-grandfather, how they fell in love. He wrote a little letter to me about it."
ON IRAQ WAR:
DIANE SAWYER: "Do you agree with your dad on the Iraq War? Do you disagree?"
JENNA BUSH: "You know I'm not here to talk about that, but I'm also not a policymaker. It's a really complicated, obviously a very complicated subject. Everybody can agree on that."
ON WHETHER SHE AND HER SISTER SHOULD SERVE:
DIANE SAWYER: "You know there've been people, Matt Damon among them, who have said should the Bush daughters be fighting in Iraq?"
JENNA BUSH: "Obviously I understand that question and see what the point of that question is for sure. I think there are many ways to serve your country. I think...what's most appropriate for me to do is to teach or to work in UNICEF and represent our country in Latin America. But you know I don't think it's a practical question. I think if people really thought about it, they know that we would put many people in danger. But I understand the point of it. I hope that I serve by being a teacher."
ON HOW SHE FEELS ABOUT PEOPLE MAKING JOKES ABOUT HER FATHER:
DIANE SAWYER: "It's got to be so hard when you can turn on any television and see somebody�making a joke about your dad."
JENNA BUSH: "We don't watch that much television. It's a good way to, to not, to not see it."
DIANE SAWYER: "But isn't it hard to avoid it?"
JENNA BUSH: "There are a lot of supportive people, too. I mean -- surprise -- you know, you may not see that from the poll numbers. But I guess people that will come up and say stuff to us are people that just say, �We love your dad.' And that, obviously, makes us feel great."
DIANE SAWYER: "Do you think about it a lot in the middle of the night, the poll numbers that are so tough�"
JENNA BUSH: "No, because nobody knows him as a, as a person. I mean, he's my father. I separate it, you know? It's, he's a different person to me than what they portray him as. He's a totally different person. I think that's normal, I mean, he's my dad."
ON WORRYING ABOUT HER DAD:
DIANE SAWYER: "Do you worry about him?"
JENNA BUSH: "Yeah, of course, but, you know, he's doing a great job and he's hanging in there� I worry about him, probably � less than he worries about me, you know."
ON HER MOM:
DIANE SAWYER: "Tell me about your mom."
JENNA BUSH: "She is calm and loving and supportive, and she would do anything for us. I think I've become more like my mom just because of what we're both interested in, children and teaching and writing."
ON HER TWIN SISTER BARBARA:
JENNA BUSH: "We've gone through every single thing together, you know, from the womb on. Imagine going through this alone. That would have been really difficult. We had each other to say, gosh, so and so said this or did you see this or you know, and we have�we're each other's best support system and best friends."
ON THE WHITE HOUSE CHILD SHE'D MOST WANT BE LIKE:
DIANE SAWYER: "Was there a White House child that you always thought, �I'd like to emulate; I'd like to be like?'"
JENNA BUSH: "I think Chelsea Clinton is, is very kind and um, smart and articulate. Um you know and she's always been very friendly to us, but we just wanted to be ourselves, but she was, she's beautiful and poised all the time."
ON HER JOB WITH UNICEF:
JENNA BUSH: "Meeting all the kids I worked with, I, I became impassioned� my job for UNICEF was to document the lives of kids living in exclusion, which means, you know, in extreme poverty, living with HIV AIDS, living in abusive households, kids that don't have access to school or medical care."
ON HER BOOK:
JENNA BUSH": [READING] "This book does not have a tidy ending because it is a work of nonfiction based on a life in progress. Ana is a seventeen-year-old girl with a lifetime of choices ahead of her. This book must end, but Ana's story is still being written, this time by her."
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