Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on Hoda & Jenna.Photo:NBC News
NBC News
Jenna Bush Hageris demonstrating that maybe honesty really is the best policy.
On the Tuesday, Jan. 7, episode ofThe Today with Jenna & Friends, Bush Hager admitted to her co-host,Hoda Kotb, during a game segment called “We Listen and We Don’t Judge” that she had lost the Christmas gift Kotb had given her.
However, the very next day on the show, Bush Hager announced that she had found the missing necklace.
“You gave me a beautiful Christmas present this year and I think itsomehow got thrown out,” Bush Hager, 43, admitted to Kotb during the Jan. 7 segment. “I can’t find it anywhere. I’ve been searching and searching and searching.”
Jenna Bush Hager.NBC News
“On social media, we did something called, ‘We listen and we don’t judge.’ And I had something that was weighing on my heart, no pun intended, in a big way,” Bush Hager explained on the Jan. 8 episode of the show, about losing the gift from her friend.
“Well I wondered why you never wore it, but I thought, ‘Maybe you didn’t like it?’” Kotb replied. “And you said — we did this little confessional thing — and you said, ‘I’m afraid to say it, I’m afraid to say it, I’m afraid to say it.’ And I was like, ‘What are you afraid to say?’ And you said…”
“You gave me a Christmas present, and I lost it,” Bush Hager filled in, laughing.“And we both kind of laughed and laughed,” Kotb said.Bush Hager revealed that the necklace’s designer, Jen Miller, had contacted her later to send her a new one. However, while she was cleaning her bathroom the same night, she found the heart-shaped necklace on her counter.“And what I realized is that if you feel bad about something, you have to just say it and it’ll come home. And it came home!” Bush Hager said.
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on December 3, 2024 on NBC’s Today Show.Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
Kotb added on: “Right, if you had harbored the secret, you probably never would have found it! But you said it, it was out. And then you FaceTimed me. You were like, ‘Guess what!’ You were screaming. And then I saw it.“The fun social media moment and ensuing hijinks come just days beforeKotb’s last day onToday, following herannouncement in Septemberthat she’d be leaving after 25 years with NBC.
Kotb has big plans for her post-Todaytime. On the Monday, Jan. 6, episode ofThe Kelly Clarkson Show,she told host Kelly Clarkson and viewers that she plans to start a wellness company, which will involve retreats and a podcast and will launch this spring.
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“We can get together, do things that I love and when you’re done, it’s not like going to Mexico with your girls, which is fun, but this is something that when you leave, you’ll go like, ‘Oh my gosh. I feel transformed. I feel different,’ ” she told Clarkson. “So I’m in the building process of that.”
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.Eugene Gologursky/Getty
Eugene Gologursky/Getty
After Kotb departs, Bush Hager revealed she’ll have a lineup of celebrity guest cohosts, includingTaraji P. Henson,Eva Longoria,Keke PalmerandScarlett Johansson.
“Nobody will ever fill this chair, but the three of them sure can try,” Bush Hager said onTodayon Monday, Jan. 6.
Kotb’s final episode ofTodayandToday with Hoda and Jennawill air on Friday, Jan. 10.
source: people.com