Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb always have rich fodder for real conversation on their “Hoda & Jenna” fourth hour of “Today.” Besides being in the world of morning TV Shows, both ladies are devoted moms to young children. It took until last November before Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb had much time to actually sit and see one another every morning on “Today.” Two days after initiating their own “Hoda & Jenna” TV “baby,” Hoda Kotb went on extended maternity leave after the arrival of her second adopted daughter, Hope Catherine.

Jenna Bush Hager kept her own pregnancy truly under wraps on TV with the help of bras, Spanx, and other concealing cover-ups.

She worked almost to the minute before her trip to the hospital to welcome Henry Harold Hager in early August. The two co-hosts came together in person just in time for the holidays. Hoda and Jenna announced big news about another new arrival in January. The “Today” gal pals went live with a “Today's” first regular live audience on February 6 with “Hoda & Jenna & Friends.” The live shows air each week on Thursday and Friday from Studio 6A. Oprah Winfrey christened the first Friday broadcast and fulfilled a dream come true for Hoda.

The banter became more serious sooner than it usually does between Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb this on February 19. Like several other morning news sources, Today reported on the revealing New York Times interview with Ben Affleck.

The conversation surrounding the struggles of Ben Affleck with addiction turned very personal for Hager. She divulged a heartfelt conversation with her father that changed her perspective forever.

Ben Affleck gets an ‘A +’ for candor from Hoda and Jenna Bush Hager

Ben Affleck is best-known for letting his feelings pour through his roles on the screen and the page.

Hoda needing a little prompting from the “Today” crew to recall the title of Oscar-winning “Good Will Hunting” from 1998, but no one needed any help to remember the powerful story in the screenplay co-written by Ben Affleck and longtime friend, Matt Damon.

“Should we watch that?” Jenna Bush Hager asks, playfully prying Kotb.

“I love ‘Good Will Hunting,’ Hager declares toward the end of the topic.

More than the accolades or simply the new project with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Hager and Kotb applaud the courage and transparency of the movie star dad in relating the truth of his struggle for his children.

“He has little kids, and they're going to see this [and know] Dad talked about this with honesty and transparency,” admitting “how hard it is to deal with pain and trying to deal with pain by doing things that aren’t good for you.”

Jenna Bush Hager was genuinely an open book, and the host soon revealed some unforgettable words from her father, the 43rd US president, George W. Bush, during her college years.

Wise words from Dad at a wedding for Jenna Bush Hager

Jenna Bush Hager truly seemed transported in time as she recalled her cousin's wedding in Maine while she was in college. A conversation with her father took her by surprise and has never left her consciousness.

“Let's go for a walk,” she remembers that he suggested. “I just want to talk to you about drinking,” continued the former president. “For me, it got in the way of the things that mattered most, and I just want you to know that it can,” spoke the father in his Texan accent, urging that he simply wanted his daughter to “be aware.”

“He never went to AA, although [they] have helped so many people,” Hager elaborated. She vividly remembers her father's honesty and insistence that his issue began “interrupting what was beautiful” in his life, including “his dreams and his parenting,” Jenna stressed.

Hager always turns to that conversation as “a model for honesty and parenting” with her own daughters and plans to always be willing and truthful in sharing what has happened “through our family” as lessons for the future.

Hoda Kotb insisted that “having the guts to have the conversation” is the most important start to help and healing. “We gloss over, gloss over, gloss over,” she spiritedly remarked, “and then we find we've just buried everything.”

“Once you get everything out, you feel so much better-- the balloon is popped, and you can catch a breath.

Ben Affleck said that his divorce from Jennifer Garner was “the biggest regret of my life.” The former spouses have remained close and consistently work at co-parenting their three children.

Affleck described how drinking or any addiction starts as wanting to feel better, but can end in pain. He now embraces that “I am an alcoholic, and the next drink will not be any different.” Photos circulated in 2018 which showed Jennifer Garner driving Ben Affleck to a treatment facility, and after some slipups, Affleck has received support in recovery from friends like Bradley Cooper and Robert Downey Jr.

Dad's advice reminds Jenna Bush Hager to be careful

Not many subjects are off-limits for Jenna Bush Hager. She has been open about everything from sharing bras with her mom to teasing Hoda about holes in her Spanx last week on “Today.”

Hager was honest about being a mom. “Parenting can be tedious and difficult,” the mom confessed.

“It's easy to think about opening that wine bottle at five o'clock,” she insisted. “I catch myself, and I try not to, for my kids, and for my family.”

Her father's words have made a profound difference already in the lives of his daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren.