Jenna Bush Hager Feels Like She Got ‘Dumped’ By Hoda Kotb Amid Host’s ‘Today’ Departure

Jenna Bush Hager is going to miss Hoda Kotb terribly when the longtime broadcaster leaves Today in 2025. The former first daughter admitted she was extremely emotional and distraught when she learned the news that her costar was making an exit from the talk show.

“If any of y’all have ever been in a relationship like this one where it’s like we’re partners in everything — I mean, first of all, when I told my kids Hoda was leaving, I might as well have said Daddy’s leaving, because they were like, wait, what? Why?” Jenna, 42, told viewers during an episode of Today on Friday, October 25. “You know, they couldn’t understand it, and I understood it, even though my heart was broken.”

Jenna said that people have stopped her on the street and suggested she go to therapy to deal with her emotions about Hoda leaving the show. “Which I do,” she said of needing therapy, causing Hoda to laugh as she sat beside her.

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Hoda revealed that her next project after Today will be in the wellness space, as it has been a longtime passion of hers. Her pal Maria Shriver was one of her biggest supporters and inspirations when it came to why she has decided to enter a new era.

Jenna will definitely be supporting Hoda when she marks her final episode of Today early next year, though it will be difficult not sitting beside her each morning.

“When you love somebody so much the way that I love Hoda, I watched her dream about this,” the Sisters First author explained. “She’s talked to me about it. I didn’t know she was going to go away. But I knew that it was in her, this dream.”

“I am so proud of her. Although, I will say I walk around even here, and people are like, ‘Congratulations, Hoda!’ And I feel like the girl that just got dumped,” she said. “And people are like, ‘You made the best choice, Hoda!’ And I’m like, ‘Did she? Did she make the best choice?’”

All jokes aside, Jenna and Hoda are bound to be friends forever, even after the latter leaves the show.

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“It’s not over,” Jenna told Hoda during the September 26 episode of Today when Hoda announced she was leaving the show. “I’m going to be showing up at your house like the stalker you are to Zac Brown. I will be there on your doorstep, and we are your friends forever.”

Hoda is excited to begin her new journey and to see what lies ahead.

“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” the mom of two, who shares daughters Haley and Hope, said. “I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, ‘This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.’ And I thought it can’t get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on.”