Today host Jenna Bush Hager got quite the surprise on Wednesday, March 12. As she was preparing to go on air for the morning show’s fourth hour, she was delighted to see her former co-host, Hoda Kotb, who stopped by to say hello.
“We had the best surprise in our briefing meeting this morning!! @hodakotb dropped in to show her love and support for @jennabhager and @dwyanewade #JennaandFriends,” the show’s Instagram page captioned a clip.
Fans really enjoyed watching the reunion and commented such on the post.
“First person to leave and always be welcomed back so easily and with love! Everyone always seems to stay away! Hoda is a bright light!!!!!” one person wrote.
“Awe how exciting was that. That’s why Hoda is amazing. Always supportive,” someone else added.
“Hoda!!!!! Just a glimpse is enough! You are loved and missed every single day! Jenna is making you proud for sure,” a third comment read.
Bush Hager also took to her Instagram Stories to let Kotb know that the surprise visit “made [her] day.” Kotb’s return to Today comes just two months after she left the program.
“So I was doing the math and I realized that I have spent 26 years at NBC, 16 years on The Ten, and seven years with you. And I just turned 60,” Kotb told her colleagues and viewers back in October 2024.
“And it was such a monumental moment for me when I turned 60 years old, because I started thinking about that decade,” she continued. “Like, what does that decade mean, what does it hold and what’s it going to have for me? And I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new,” she added.
On Monday, March 10, Kotb shared the next chapter (literally) of her journey. Kotb is set to release a book called Jump and Find Joy in September.
“Everybody in their life, at one point, stands on the edge of something and says, ‘Should I jump? Should I try? Should I go for it?’ And I felt that way about the ‘Today’ show, and I was terrified to even think about jumping,” Kotb said in a video message that aired during Today’s “Pop Start” segment.
“I started thinking about different people who I’ve loved and respected and admired who have been afraid to do something and have done it, and I included some of them in the book,” she added.
