Brooke Shields recounted a wild story with George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush during Thursday’s episode of NBC’s Today with Jenna and Friends.
The 59-year-old actor, who had a close relationship with the pair, was filming a movie in Boston when she received a surprise invite from the former president to join the couple at their compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
“Excuse me, young lady. I hear you’re in the area. If you do not come to Kennebunkport, you are in trouble,” Bush said.
Shields traveled to Maine with her children. The visit had gone smoothly until the evening.
“I sneak downstairs to do the puzzle, go get a beer, and as I get a beer, water is flooding into the living room from the ocean, from over the rocks,” Shields told host Jenna Hagar Bush.
Quickly jumping to action, Shields shut all the doors and grabbed a towel to soak up the water, then rushed downstairs to tell the Bushes what had happened.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to tell somebody,’“ she said. “So I go to the downstairs bedroom and with the fear of God ...”
Shields burst into the bedroom, where the couple was watching true crime show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
“I said, ‘I just want to let you know, excuse me!’“ Shields recalled. “I think the house might have flooded, but I think I’ve got it.”
Shields said she was mortified to see the former field lady in her “dressing gown” and tried to look away. Unfazed, the former first lady invited her to join them.
“She’s like, ‘Come in here! Come in here!’” Shields said. “She’s like, ‘George, maybe Brooke can answer this question. Sit down.’”
“Well, who do you think did it?” the former president asked about the episode.
“I was, like, ‘I don’t know who did it, but it’s probably the person who you think least did it,‘” Shields said, laughing.
Shields sat between the couple and watched the rest of the episode. The former first lady credited the actress for saving their house.
“This is a moment of my life that was so special,” Shields recalled.
In the interview, Shields talked about her special relationship with George H.W. Bush.
“I never had a grandfather, so since I was quite young, he would give me boy advice and say, ‘Okay, I like that one. I don’t like this one,’” Shields said. “It was a very sweet relationship that I needed to have and hadn’t had with anyone else.”
