White House says Jenna Bush to marry

WASHINGTON – Jenna Bush, the presidential daughter turned teacher and author who is perhaps best known for her partying ways, is settling down, the White House announced Thursday.

Bush, 25, and longtime boyfriend Henry Hager, 29, are engaged to be married, according to a brief statement from first lady Laura Bush’s publicity office. No wedding date or location has been set.

In the more than six years of her father’s presidency, Jenna, who has a twin sister, Barbara, has evolved from a light-hearted college student and party girl into a charter-school teacher and social activist. An unpaid internship with UNICEF in Panama last spring introduced Bush to a 17-year-old HIV-positive single mother named Ana who inspired Jenna to write a book. “Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope” is scheduled for publication Oct. 2.

According to advance copies, the book is dedicated to her “amazing” parents and “my patient Henry.” Hager has been Jenna’s boyfriend for several years. One of his most prominent appearances with her was as her date to a state dinner in honor of Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, in November 2005.

The two met when Hager, from a prominent Republican family in Virginia, worked on President Bush’s re-election campaign and later when he served as a junior White House aide. He is now pursuing an MBA at the University of Virginia.

Hager’s father, John H. Hager, is a former lieutenant governor of Virginia who until recently served as an assistant secretary of education in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. In July, he was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.

Jenna Bush graduated from the University of Texas, Austin in 2004 with a degree in English. Barbara graduated the same year from Yale University.

During their father’s first term, the daughters kept a low public profile, in part because White House officials refused, sometimes stridently, to disclose any information about them.

They occasionally made headlines anyway: In 2001, a few months after her father was sworn into office, Jenna – then 19 – was twice charged with alcohol-related misdemeanors. Her driver’s license was suspended for 30 days, and she performed 100 hours of community service.

As they graduated from college, however, the twins took on more prominent roles in their father’s political life, appearing with him frequently at campaign events. And with greater maturity, the stories of their hard-driving social lives began to diminish.