When Barbara Pierce Bush first met her future husband, Craig Coyne, she had some help from her lifelong partner in crime — her twin sister, Jenna Bush Hager.
“My first date with Craig was a blind date. Jenna was on it,” Barbara said in People’s latest cover story featuring her and her sister. “I had told Jenna before, ‘I don’t know this guy. Under no circumstances invite him along.’ And within five minutes she said, ‘What are you doing tonight? Do you want to come to our book event?’”
“So he came, and we hazed him,” she continued. “We never thought we’d see him again! Now we’re married.”
Craig Coyne and Barbara Bush have been married since 2018.Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images
Barbara has shared other details in the past about her first encounter with her husband-to-be.
“(The date) was so blind that I didn’t know what he looked like,” she told People in 2018. “And so I went up to two guys before him in the lobby, asking if they were him. And then, luckily, a really handsome guy walked in, and I thought, ‘Please, maybe this one will be him.’ And it was him. And so that was our first date, and he rolled with it.”
The former first daughter and Coyne, an actor and screenwriter, tied the knot on Oct. 7, 2018. They wed in an intimate ceremony in Kennebunkport, Maine, at the Bush family’s Walker’s Point compound.
“Don’t let him tell you he didn’t know what he was getting into, because he did!” Jenna teased her sister in their recent People interview.
Barbara and Jenna’s close bond was on full display as they co-hosted TODAY with Jenna & Friends on Monday and Tuesday.
“You’re a mom of two!” Jenna exclaimed to her twin on the show March 24. “Since the last time you were here, you had a baby boy.”
Barbara and her husband welcomed a son, Edward Finn, in August. They are also parents to daughter Cora Georgia, 3.
“I have a new little guy named Edward,” Barbara said on TODAY, sharing an adorable photo of her family. “There they are, Edward and Cora Georgia — my little cuties.”
Barbara noted that her son is “a big guy,” weighing in at 30 pounds.
“Wow,” Jenna said.
“To put it in context, my 3-year-old is 32 pounds, so he is large and in charge,” Barbara joked.
It’s been all about family this week for the twins, who sat down with their mom, Laura Bush, for a heartwarming interview about parenting.
“It’s wonderful to have grandchildren, I’m thrilled to have grandchildren,” Laura Bush told her daughters. “For one thing, we can be with them, we can play with them, then we can send them all to y’all!”
Jenna and Barbara also read their mom passages from their new picture book, “I Loved You First,” which honors the bond between parents and children.
“Daddy and I did love you first,” the former first lady said, growing emotional.
