London, Jan 12: White House Press Secretary for George W. Bush, Dana Perino, says that the President has been like a second father to her.

Perino, who is very loyal to Bush, will be heading to Britain where she will join her husband Peter MacMahon, children, and twin grandchildren.

"It's probably not professional to say it, but in many ways he has been like a second father to me," Times Online quoted her as saying.

The 36-year-old also revealed that it was Bush who had noticed her crying on the day he ducked a shoe on his farewell visit to Iraq, and she had been hit in the face by a swinging microphone.

"I was trying not to cry but it hurt so bad and I was scared. I thought the shoe was maybe a diversion for something else," she recalled.

"I call it my `shoevenir'," she said about the black eye she got.

Perino was present during the historic White House meeting in September where Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke warned Bush that America could be facing a new Great Depression.

"With all the money in the world, we could not catch a break," she said ruefully.

"That's the way this presidency has been. He came in with a bang and he's going to leave with a bang," she added. (ANI)