5 Normal Moments In George & Laura Bush's Marriage That Prove Their Strong Bond

Former president George W. Bush and Laura Bush have been married since 1977. They were initially brought together by another couple who believed they had common ground and wanted to see if any sparks would fly. Their intuition was correct, and similar to George's parents' epic love story, George and Laura's bond began immediately. Since they only dated less than two months before George proposed, it appears committing to married life was an easy decision. "Our childhoods overlapped so completely and our worlds were so intertwined, it was as if we had known each other our whole lives," Laura wrote in her memoir "Spoken From the Heart."

While their decades together have included unusual experiences like living in the White House, a closer examination of George and Laura's marriage reveals plenty of relatable details. For instance, two important dates occur consecutively in the Bush family calendar: Laura's birthday, and the couple's wedding anniversary. While this proximity might make for easier remembering, in 2015, George revealed a relatable omission. "Happy anniversary, @laurawbush," he wrote on Instagram. "Thanks for standing by me all these years ... even when I forgot to post on your birthday yesterday." To avoid this mistake in subsequent years, George's online strategy has been to continue making combined posts, like in 2017 when the couple celebrated their milestone 40th anniversary, and George sweetly commented that Laura is "the love of my life."

From household foibles to parenthood, take a look at these other identifiable moments from the Bushes' marriage.

When Laura Bush has something to say, George W. Bush listens. While this is an admirable quality in a partner, in one instance, George's listening led to distracted driving. After a public speaking engagement, George asked Laura for her opinion on his performance. "She sort of stalled," their daughter Jenna Bush Hager related decades later on "Today." She added, "Finally she just said, 'It wasn't very good.'" Amid George's complete astonishment at his wife's assessment, Hager concluded the story on a shocking note: "He drove the car into the garage." Since the incident occurred early in their marriage and likely before she was born, Hager wasn't entirely sure of what transpired, but she did know her dad's behavior was accidental. Hopefully, there weren't any injuries or too much damage to either the car or the Bush family home.

While Laura doesn't divulge any details about the garage accident in her memoir, she does explain that shortly before their romance began, George started campaigning in a congressional election. It's probable, then, that the sub-par speech he gave that affected their garage was part of this campaign. Although George didn't win that race, the time he and his wife spent campaigning solidified their bond. "From the start, our marriage was built on a powerful foundation of trust," Laura wrote in her book. "We drove and we talked and we laughed and we dreamed in the front seat of George's Oldsmobile."

Marriage frequently involves compromise in many different areas. For George W. and Laura Bush, one area of compromise includes home furnishings. Pre-marriage, George had outfitted his bachelor pad with decor that included a brown leather sofa. Over 40 years later, in 2021, they still owned this same sofa, although George conceded that Laura wasn't particularly a fan of it.

"It's in my Crawford art studio," George informed The Wall Street Journal. "Much to Laura's chagrin, it now has paint splattered on it. But it still works." Photos in the article revealed the couch to look in fairly good shape, although with a prominent blob of white paint along one of the seats. However, Laura didn't have to deal with the couch during her family's eight years in the White House, since almost all their furniture stayed behind. While George's painting may have lowered Laura's opinion of the couch, his artistic endeavors are winning him numerous fans.

Besides hanging onto stuff forever, Laura has also noted George could be a little neater at home. However, she's diffused her frustration by focusing on his strengths. "When George came home and dropped his wet towels on the furniture, I had to remind myself of how terrific he'd been when he gave speeches," Laura explained in "Spoken from the Heart."

Even before George W. and Laura Bush started their romance, their friends remarked on their ability to see the funny side of life. Fortunately, this trait has served them well during decades of marriage. For example, right as she was preparing to celebrate her wedding, Laura found herself the subject of an uncomfortable headline. "When they got engaged, in the newspaper it said . . . 'Midland's most eligible bachelor gets Midland's old maid,'" Jenna Bush Hager later explained on "Today." Laura was able to laugh off this insulting language, and she found it extra amusing since she's several months younger than George.  

When their lives were thrust onto the national stage during George's presidency, he proved he was just as adept as Laura when it came to dealing with criticism. When he was routinely parodied on "Saturday Night Live" during his presidency, George took it in stride and integrated some of the jokes into presidential business.

In their post-presidential lives, Laura has also used humor to joke about how the transition impacted their marriage. While she was ok about letting some things slide when George was busy with presidential duties, she had different expectations after he left the role. "Memo to the ex-presidents: turmoil in East Timor is no longer an excuse not to pick up your socks," Laura joked in a 2012 speech at the University at Buffalo. 

Laura Bush's mom had experienced pregnancy loss, and Laura had fertility difficulties in her marriage to George W. Bush. As their friends had children of their own, Laura struggled emotionally. "For an absence . . . we are wordless to capture that particular emptiness," she explained in "Spoken from the Heart." The couple decided to pursue adoption, and Laura also got hormone treatments. Even after she became pregnant with twins, Laura was on high alert for possible issues. To help prevent a miscarriage, Laura had cervical sutures. "George and I headed to Houston for the procedure, our fingers interlaced, our hands clasped together, communicating in that one gesture every hope that we held for the months to come," she later recalled in her memoir.

Laura also dealt with preeclampsia, and George was regularly making a 300-plus mile trip between their home and the Dallas hospital where she was admitted. A few weeks later, their daughters Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Bush Hager were born via c-section, five weeks premature. Since their grandfather George H.W. Bush was vice president at the time, Laura had to deal with the added difficulty of the media taking pictures of her immediately after surgery.

George and Laura's experiences with infertility had a lasting impact on them. "They are sensitive to the feelings of anyone who does not yet have the babies they want," Jenna explained in "Everything Beautiful in Its Time," (via People).

Parenthood comes with an ongoing set of challenges, and it was a task that George W. and Laura Bush worked on together. While having two babies simultaneously can sometimes add difficulty, it also added to their joy. "George and I discovered a wonderful symmetry in having twins: there was always a baby for one of us to hold," Laura revealed in her memoir "Spoken from the Heart." Jenna Bush Hager informed People in 2019, "My dad showed up, and he helped because there was no choice. There were two of us at the same time, and they were equal parents." When Jenna became a parent, she and her husband, Henry Hager, adopted a similar shared approach.

Besides taking on responsibilities like feeding his kids and changing diapers, George reveled in having fun together with his growing daughters. He'd take them for nighttime walks in the snow and play games with them and their friends. According to Jenna, Laura excelled at keeping her cool even in trying circumstances. In addition, she often employed a strategy of opening her daughters up to all kinds of possibilities while letting them make their own choices.

In addition, George and Laura made good use of their shared sense of humor to add levity to their parenting experience. When the twins were toddlers and a person presumed they were boys, the Bushes jokingly dubbed them Benny and Beauregard. These impromptu names went on to become affectionate monikers.