Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager formed a strong bond both on and off the small screen.
Kotb and Bush Hager joined NBC’s Today in 2007 and 2009, respectively, and went on to cohost the show’s fourth hour together following Kathie Lee Gifford’s 2019 exit. For over five years, the duo made fans laugh and cry while interviewing some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, trying internet hacks, playing games and opening up about their personal ups and downs.
During a October 2021 episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna, Bush Hager credited Kotb with helping her get her big break. “I was here for years doing a lot of different things, and I worked really hard. And I had producers say, ‘Well, you’re a correspondent. That’s where you are,’ and that was good. That was what I wanted to be. I wanted to tell stories,” she tearfully shared. “And you asked me to fill in with you, and I’ll never forget it.”
Bush Hager shed more tears after Kotb announced she was exiting Today after nearly 30 years at NBC in September 2024. “You’re who I come to when I’m feeling joyful, when I’m feeling unsure. You are who I come to. And you believed in me first,” she said at the time.
Nathan Congleton/NBC Hoda Kotb’s tenure on the Today show was full of many memorable moments. The TV personality announced in September 2024 that she would be departing the iconic morning show after 26 years on NBC, 16 years as a Today cohost and seven years as Savannah Guthrie’s co-anchor. “I just turned 60, and it […]
Kotb, for her part, said that her replacement was “going to have the easiest job in the world ‘cause they’re sitting next to you.”
Kotb bid farewell to the morning show in January 2025, after which Bush Hager continued to cohost the fourth hour, retitled Today With Jenna & Friends, with a lineup of celebrity guest hosts.
Scroll down to see some of Kotb and Bush Hager’s sweetest friendship moments from over the years:
Starting Their Journey
The pair kicked off their cohosting journey on an emotional note, as Kotb made Bush Hager tear up with special video messages from her family: dad and former President George W. Bush, mom Laura Bush and mother-in-law Margaret Hager.
“Is this what’s gonna happen? I’m just gonna cry all the time?” Bush Hager asked, unknowingly predicting many more tearful moments in the future. “That was so sweet.”
Support System
Bush Hager has stood by Kotb’s side through difficult times, including when Kotb announced she and her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman had split in January 2022. “Watching you sit right here, strong, I can’t think of anybody stronger every day,” Bush Hager said on Hoda & Jenna at the time, praising Kotb for her bravery, courage and ability to “tell the truth.”
Kotb, for her part, comforted Bush Hager when she expressed guilt for not being there more for Kotb when her youngest daughter, Hope, experienced a health scare in early 2023. (Kotb shares daughters Haley and Hope with Schiffman.)
“When Hoda’s daughter wasn’t feeling well, I just wasn’t there for her the way I wanted to be,” Bush Hager explained on Hoda & Jenna in May 2023. “And I didn’t know how to be, and I felt terrible about it, but I didn’t know what to do. So, I just said it. I said, ‘I feel like I haven’t been there for you.’”
Kotb called her cohosts’ comments “one of the most beautiful statements” and said her words “meant everything to her” during her tough time.
Taking the Plunge
Among Kotb and Bush Hager’s many memorable TV moments is their January 2022 polar plunge. While watching the event on air, however, Bush Hager got angry with Kotb after seeing she did not fully submerge herself in the frigid water.
“Wait, what? You didn’t dive? You just put your head [in]?” she said as Kotb laughed. “No wonder you were out so [fast]. You didn’t dive? I thought you said we were gonna dive together.”
Making Music
Kotb and Bush Hager fulfilled their dreams of releasing a Christmas song together in November 2023 with the help of viral vocal coach Cheryl Porter. One month after debuting the festive track, titled “Carefree Christmas,” they took to the Today Plaza with Porter to perform it live.
“We learned, literally, to go from non-singers to below average singers,” Kotb quipped in a December 2023 video package before their live performance, noting that the song charted on the iTunes Top 10 chart.
Playing Matchmaker
Two years after Kotb and Schiffman’s split, Bush Hager revealed that she had set her pal up on a date by texting friends to find someone outside of Kotb’s usual social circle.
“I texted three people: my sister [Barbara Bush] who [was] in graduate school; One friend that had just moved to Connecticut, so I had a whole new different world; and another friend that had just moved out of the city too,” she said of a past matching making attempt on a March 2024 episode of Hoda & Jenna. “And guess what? One of the friends had somebody. So, ask outside of your zone.”
Bush Hager also had her sights on setting Kotb up with some of Today’s celebrity guests, including Lenny Kravitz. “I know someone else who meditates — and wears leather,” she said on air in September 2024, referring to how Kotb and Kravitz each wore leather earlier on the show that morning.
Career Milestones
Kotb and Bush Hager gushed about working together while celebrating their fifth anniversary as Hoda & Jenna cohosts in April 2024. “It feels like it was yesterday, and it feels so profound to get to sit next to somebody that exudes joy no matter what you have going on,” Bush Hager said on the show. “You greet me with a smile every single day, and I know it’s not always easy. In fact, it’s probably not easy at all. But you’re here and you sit next to me.”
Kotb, meanwhile, noted that he and Bush Hager grew to share a “deep understanding of the other’s soul and purpose” over their five years of hosting together. “Every day, it’s something different, something new, something we’re learning. You’ve led me down a path because of people who you know in your life and people who are, kind of, healers who’ve helped heal me. And, I mean, it’s all meant to be. This is all meant to be,” she added.
Hoda Kotb is saying goodbye to Today with a week full of fun and heartfelt festivities. The stars of the NBC morning show kicked off Kotb’s “Hoda-bration” on Monday, January 6, to mark her final week of episodes. “We’re gonna celebrate you, which is gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really easy,” Jenna Bush Hager […]
They rang in the milestone with several surprises, including lighting up the Empire State Building in the show’s signature pink and purple colors, getting a brand new theme song performed by Meghan Trainor and having New York City mayor Eric Adams declare April 8, 2024, as Today With Hoda & Jenna Day.
Hilarious Nicknames
On an April 2024 episode of Hoda & Jenna, Bush Hager surprised viewers when she revealed her nickname for Kotb is “Dad.” She explained at the time, “I call her Dad because she’s early to everything, always early, and she just reminds me of my father. I’m like, ‘Dad says we can’t drink too much, Talia [Parkinson-Jones],’ to our boss. ‘Dad says put the vodka down.’”
Bush Hager’s comments were followed up by a clip of the pair partying in New Orleans the night prior, after which she remarked to Kotb: “You weren’t Dad that night. Hoda took a shot. We went into a dive bar, and they were yelling ‘shots,’ and before I even knew it, Hoda was in there pounding something. And then we danced, we had the best [time].”
Birthday Surprises
Bush Hager caused Kotb to burst into tears with the meaningful present she gave her during their “Hoda’s 60th Birthday Bash” episode of Hoda & Jenna in August 2024. “I had my dad, who has started painting, paint your favorite photo of you holding your girls,” Bush Hager said as Kotb cried. Seeing her cohost’s strong reaction, Bush Hager shouted, “Oh no! It’s too much!”
Taking Trips
Kotb and Bush Hager took their show on the road multiple times in their years cohosting Today, visiting places such as Québec City, Canada, Bermuda and New Orleans, the latter of which was where Kotb lived while getting her start in local news. For their final trip in October 2024, they visited Austin, Texas, where Bush Hager went to high school and college.
During their visit down south, Bush Hager took Kotb on a tour of her old stomping grounds, including Austin High School, restaurants such as El Arroyo and Joann’s Fine Foods and Donn’s Depot piano bar and saloon.
Family Outings
Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and kids Courtesy of Hoda Kotb/Instagram
Just as Kotb and Bush Hager grew close on air over the years, so have their families. In October 2024, the pair and Guthrie traveled with all of their kids to Miami to attend Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. “SWIFTIES!!!” Kotb captioned Instagram pics from the concert.
Halloween Hijinks
Despite several years of memorable Today Halloween costumes, Kotb and Bush Hager didn’t do their first joint costume until their last Halloween celebration in October 2024. Fitting with the year’s “VHS Rewind” theme, the duo dressed as the famous movie couple Jack and Rose from Titanic.
They even poked fun at Kotb’s Today departure while reenacting the film’s infamous door scene on Hoda & Jenna. “It’s been amazing, but I kind of feel like I’m outta here. I’m repotting. I’m gonna repot myself elsewhere,” Kotb joked as she pretended to sink into the sea.
Giving Signals
Though Bush Hager never got to cohost a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with Kotb, that latter began a tradition of doing a secret signal for Bush Hager during the broadcast. “Last year, Hoda and I came up with this secret symbol, which was Hoda brushing her teeth with a finger,” Bush Hager explained on a November 2024 episode of Hoda & Jenna.
For Kotb’s final parade hosting gig, the pair agreed that her signal to Bush Hager would be a dance move they created in the music in the music video for comedian Matt Rogers’ Christmas song “RockaFellaCenta.”
Bush captured the moment Kotb pulled out the dance move with Guthrie during that year’s parade via Instagram. “So thankful for my most hilarious and LOYAL @hodakotb who always comes through! With assist by my dearest @savannahguthrie!!!” she captioned the clip. “That was a (not so!) secret dance move!”
Saying Goodbye
Bush Hager expressed her sadness over Kotb’s Today departure several times before her final episode in January 2025. “When everybody’s like, ‘Oh, my God! Congratulations,’ it’s like, I feel like I’ve been dumped,” she joked on a December 2024 episode of her “Open Book with Jenna” podcast. “Not really, you know, ‘cause she’s choosing herself. I get that. But my heart is broken a little.”
During Kotb’s final Today episode, she passed her “Hoda’s Morning Boost” segment torch to Bush Hager during the show’s second hour. Later on Hoda & Jenna, Bush Hager thanked Kotb for “everything you have taught me” in a video package, stating, “I will miss you, my friend, but I love you and I’m so proud. Love always and forever, Jenna.”
News of Hoda Kotb’s Today show exit is bittersweet for her cohosts. “I just turned 60, and it was such a monumental moment for me when I turned 60 years old because I started thinking about that decade, like, what does that decade mean? What does it hold? What’s it gonna have for me?” Kotb, […]
In a letter of her own, Kotb said that a “new era started” when she began cohosting the show with Bush Hager. “Six unforgettable years, uncontrollable laughter and pure friendship,” she gushed. “I can hardly even say her name without laughing out loud, but that is not the part I fell in love with. I fell in love with her tears, her vulnerable, lovable self.”
Bush Hager squeezed in some final kind words for Kotb before she drove away from 30 Rock with her kids in her minivan. “You are loved. I can’t imagine this place without you, but I don’t have to ‘cause we already have a date on your calendar. Thank you all for believing in us, and Hoda, I love you,” she stated, after which Kotb gave a shout-out to Jenna & Friends, which was beginning the following week.
