Many parents can remember a time that they left a child behind somewhere — at the library or at Grandma’s house — but former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton topped them all when she admitted on live television that she once left a young Chelsea Clinton behind at the Kremlin.
The former first lady and her daughter made a joint appearance Tuesday on “The Tonight Show” with host Jimmy Fallon — and Clinton let that tidbit slip during a mother-daughter challenge game designed to see just how well the pair knew each other.
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Most parents: "Oh, my God, I left my kid at Grandma's house by mistake!"
Hillary Clinton: "Yeah, we once left Chelsea at the Kremlin …" pic.twitter.com/R1M67ImOvY— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) September 7, 2022
In order to play the game, Chelsea had to put on a pair of headphones that would prevent her from hearing her mother’s answer to a question — after which she was to remove the headphones and answer the same question — to see if they would each give the same answer.
As Chelsea nodded along to the music playing in her ears, Fallon turned to Hillary and asked her to tell him about her “craziest family vacation memory.”
After a brief pause, Hillary noted that they had had some interesting travel memories, but one did stand out: “I hope she doesn’t remember this because it was pretty traumatic.”
“Those are the best stories,” Fallon interjected, laughing.
“We took her to Russia — Russia — when we went on a state visit when Bill was president, and there were the formal goodbyes —”
Chelsea, watching as her mom grew more and more animated, turned to the audience and mouthed the words “what are they talking about?”
“So Bill and I were ushered into the Beast, the big limousine, to head to the airport, not knowing that we had left her behind,” Clinton continued, and the audience exploded with laughter.
“Wow!” Fallon exclaimed.
“I mean, can you imagine?” Clinton asked, her eyes wide. “Leaving my only child in the Kremlin, especially with everything that has happened?”
Fallon then turned to Chelsea and had her remove her headphones, indicating that it was her turn to answer the question — and she admitted that while they had been talking she had been attempting to read her mother’s lips.
“But I didn’t succeed at all,” she added.
Fallon repeated the question, and Chelsea responded, “Oh gosh, now I wish we had been chased by a bear or something.”
“Close,” Fallon hinted, to laughter.
Chelsea thought for a few moments and then something appeared to click — she nodded definitively before saying, “When they left me at the Kremlin.”