Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb share one of the sweetest friendships to ever come out of morning television.
But despite their close bond, Jenna admitted that she had a moment of jealousy when her friend formed a close connection on set.
Green-eyed monster
Speaking to her Jenna & Friends guest host, Andy Cohen, on Tuesday’s episode of Today, the 43-year-old revealed that she had always envied his unexpected friendship with Hoda, explaining that being with them was like being the “third wheel”.
“I always felt like, because you and Hoda have a friendship, Hoda and I have a friendship, when you would come, I was like, ‘Am I on a triple date?'” she told the Bravo mogul.
“Did you feel like the third wheel?” Andy quipped.
“A little,” Jenna admitted. “Not in a good way, but it was okay because I love to watch people love Hoda, you know — she’s my bestie.”
Fast friends
© NBCU Photo Bank via Getty ImagesAndy and Hoda connected on the morning show set, with the father of two sharing just how much she impacted his life during an appearance on Today with Hoda & Jenna in January.
He told his friend that she had the “best head of hair on television,” and praised Hoda’s “bravery and wherewithal” for leaving to be a stay-at-home mother to her two daughters. After quipping that she was the “Kathie Lee [Gifford] whisperer,” Andy added that her “courage and strength” inspired him to become a father.
On Tuesday’s episode, Andy admitted that while he doesn’t speak to the former Today anchor “often,” there was “no beef” between them and he still counted her as a good friend.
Closer than ever
© NBCMeanwhile, Hoda is one of Jenna’s best friends, and the pair speak frequently despite no longer working together. “I talk to Hoda all the time. Not enough,” she said. “I’d like to talk to her every day if I could and that’s what I had, but the thing is, and this is the thing about Hoda, she still wakes up at 4:30 in the morning, which is insane.”
Hoda departed the Today show in January after 17 years on air, in order to be more present in her young daughters’ lives. She and Jenna became fast friends when the daughter of former President George W. Bush joined the show in 2009, and the pair went on to co-host Today‘s fourth hour in 2019.
“We started off as colleagues/friends. We didn’t really know each other. Over the five years, there’s such a deep understanding of the other’s soul and purpose,” Hoda said on the show in 2024.
© NBC“We have traveled down these roads together,” she continued. “A lot of times friendships don’t grow, you talk about the old days. Not ours. Like every day [there’s] something different, something new, something we’re learning.”
She added that the author was “my closest friend in adulthood that I didn’t know that I needed,” while Jenna shared that they “love each other.”
“We are really good friends, and so it makes work easy and natural and fun because I adore who I am next to,” she said, sharing that “sitting next to [Hoda] every single day for the last five years has been the best, best privilege.”
For more of Hoda and Jenna’s adorable friendship, see below…
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