Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb Get Emotional as They Reflect on Their Journeys to Motherhood

TODAY with Hoda & Jenna/Twitter

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager had a heartfelt, tearful start to their Thursday.

During the third hour of Today, Kotb and Bush Hager talked about motherhood as they reflected on Hilary Swank's recent pregnancy announcement. The 48-year-old actress announced Wednesday on Good Morning America that she and husband Philip Schneider are expecting twins.

Kotb — who became a mom at 52 and now has daughters Hope, 3, and Haley, 5 — spoke about how when it comes to being a parent, "it's so funny about when it's time, when is the right time to do it."

"Some people are planners and I totally get it," she explained, noting those who want to accomplish certain things before starting a family. "But life is funny, it doesn't care what your dumb plan is."

Bush Hager — mom to Henry "Hal" Harold, 2, Poppy Louise, 6, and Margaret "Mila" Laura, 9 — asked Kotb when she thought, growing up, that she would become a mom.

"I think I always assumed it, so I didn't plan for it," Kotb replied. "I just knew that was part of me. I don't know that I thought 'well I better hurry.' I just always assumed it was happening, until one day I looked at my life and realized."

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Explaining that there was a point where she worried she'd put too much into her career and that motherhood might not be in the cards for her, Kotb recalled trying to make peace with not being a mom as she navigated her health issues.

Kotb, 58, said she felt "greedy" for still wanting to be a mom because she'd already been given "plenty of blessings."

"You feel greedy saying 'please can I have one more blessing?' You feel like that's a lot to ask for," Kotb tearfully shared.

hodakotb/Instagram

Bush Hager, 40, recalled growing up wanting to be a wife and a mom more than anything, but that she doesn't see the same in her daughters.

"My biggest dream was to be a mom," she shared, tearing up. "That's all I wanted. And my girls, I said to Henry, they have these other dreams."

"Mila's like 'I'm going to write a story, I'm going to be an author. I'm going to be a lawyer,' all these things. Poppy's like 'I'm going to be an actor.'"

While they dream about all sorts of things, Bush Hager said "they don't talk about motherhood or marrying."

"I kind of love that maybe because their mom worked — and my mom worked too — that I get up every day and I'm not there to make them breakfast, but they see something different," she said.

Jenna Bush Hager/ instagram

"They're like 'that's what's out there, possibilities for me, I can do that,'" Kotb responded in agreement.

Bush Hager then applauded Kotb for "showing people like my sister, who had babies a little later, like Hilary, like all of these people who maybe their dreams didn't come true at the age they thought they were going to, but it can happen when it's supposed to happen."

"I do think that that's exactly when it does happen," Kotb added. "It's beautiful no matter when it does."