Jenna Bush Hager gets honest about Hoda Kotb's protective gesture

Jenna Bush Hager just revealed the unexpected way Hoda Kotb stepped in to protect her before exiting the Today Show.

The 43-year-old American author and journalist appeared on the How She Does It podcast, where she opened up about how Kotb once came in for her rescue ahead of her exit from the show.

Hager said, “In the same way that I didn't envision myself working at the Today show, I never envisioned Hoda leaving. And in fact, she kept saying, ‘Don't sign your contract.’”

The Love Comes First author first thought the message meant one thing but later learnt what the 60-year-old American broadcaster and journalist was trying to say.

“I thought she was saying that so we could link up our contracts and be there until the same time. But what she was doing was protecting me, because she knew I was gonna be doing the show on my own,” Hager explained.

She went on to admit that the moment was a “different story than when you are sitting next to a partner you have had for six years,” and the news came as a shock when Kotb planned to leave Today in September 2024.

“I didn’t ever have one inkling of a thought that she was about to say she was leaving. I know she loved her work and loves her work, so leaving it wasn’t something I could wrap my mind around until I sat down with her and heard her reasoning.”

“It was not something I chose. It was a shock and it was a disappointment at the time,” Jenna Bush Hager conceded.

It is pertinent to mention that Hoda Kotb left the Today show in January this year to spend more time with her family.