This morning, former First Daughter and Today show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager revealed to co-star Kathie Lee Gifford that her grandmother only has four toes on each foot. And that she lost the other two, “due to old age.”
HUH?
Yep, it’s a thing, I’m told.
It’s called “autamputation,” the spontaneous detachment of an appendage from the body.
It all started when Jenna and Kathie Lee were discussing households that require you to remove your shoes when you come in, and how that might be uncomfortable for some people.
‘What if you got really ugly, gnarly feet, and you’ve spent your whole life hiding them, and then all of a you go to your friends house…’ she said of possible situations where people would be forced to embarrassed themselves because of someone’s no-shoes policy.
‘Do you want to know the truth? My grandmother is missing a toe on each foot,’ Jenna said.
Kathie’s jaw dropped as she asked: ‘Barbara?’
Jenna once again reiterated that her Barbara is indeed missing a toe on each foot before she realized her grandmother may not be pleased with her sharing that information with the world.
‘Has she ever divulged that?’ asked Kathie, and Jenna responded: ‘Not that I know of. But she has darling feet! And they look cute!’
Kathie couldn’t stop asking questions about which toes were missing, and Jenna said she believes her grandmother is missing each of her second toes.
‘Granny I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said it. But it happened with age,’ she said.
At this point, the two co-stars couldn’t stop laughing, and Kathie couldn’t resist asking: ‘What do you mean age? She had them before and now she doesn’t? They disappeared?’
‘They say if you don’t sleep that much your toes fall away,’ Jenna joked, immediately noting that she was kidding about that portion of the story.
Aside from saying ‘it happened with age,’ Jenna doesn’t elaborate on whether the toes were amputated for medial reasons or they simply fell off as the result of autamputation, the spontaneous detachment of an appendage from the body.
Meanwhile, Kathie couldn’t stop cracking jokes, teasing: ‘I can’t wait to go for a picnic up in Kennebunkport and check ’em out.’
Jenna said she felt ‘terrible’, and questioned whether she should ‘be embarrassed’ for sharing that with the world.
‘Anyway, but so when you think about that, that would be mean to [make her] take [her] shoes off when she arrives for a dinner party,’ she added.
And there you have it.
(via Daily Mail)