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Jenna Bush Hager Teases Hoda Kotb About Her Relationship Track Record: Men in ‘Different Area Codes’
With a little over a month to go before Hoda Kotb leaves Today, her fourth hour cohost Jenna Bush Hager made sure to poke fun at the broadcaster’s love life when she was younger.
Jenna, 43, asked Hoda, 60, “Did you have a lot of relationships in your 20s?” during the Wednesday, December 4, episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna. The Texas native noted that she spent most of that decade of her life with husband Henry Hager, marrying at the age of 26.
Hoda explained how she spent her 20s moving “from city to city when I was in local news.” As a result, she would “date someone in the city” where her TV station was located.
That caused Jenna to exclaim, “Ludacris is singing in my head ‘cause you moved from city to city and you had somebody in a different area code.” The rapper, 47, sang on the 2001 song, “I’ve got h–s in different area codes.”
Jenna’s quip left Hoda and the show’s floor crew in hysterics and the fun didn’t stop there.
“Well, you meet people, and then, you get another job, so you have to leave,” Hoda responded to the area codes comparison, to which Jenna replied with the spicy question, “So, you had men all over the country? You gotta go back and listen to that song ‘Area Codes.’”
The former first daughter began dating Henry, 46, when she was 23 years old. They married in 2008 and went on to welcome three children: daughters Mila and Poppy as well as son Hal.
Hoda got her start in TV news straight out of college at WXVT in Greenville, Mississippi. She then spent a year at WQAD in Moline, Illinois, as a reporter in 1988. Hoda moved up to the weekend anchor position at WINK in Fort Myers, Florida, from 1989 to 1991. She then spent six years working as an anchor and reporter at WWL in New Orleans, Louisiana, before getting her big national break with NBC News in 1998.
The Oklahoma native married University of New Orleans tennis coach Burzis Kanga in 2005 after dating on and off for years. The former couple divorced in 2008.
Hoda found her next great love with Joel Schiffman after meeting at a Wall Street event in 2013. The two kept their romance under wraps for two years before revealing their relationship.
The Hope Is a Rainbow author adopted her eldest daughter, Haley, in 2017. She went on to adopt her second daughter, Hope, in 2019, which was the same year Hoda and Joel got engaged.
After delaying their wedding several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hoda announced their breakup during an episode of Today in January 2022.
The NBC icon made the emotional revelation that she was leaving Today after 17 years with the morning show on September 26. After Hoda leaves Today on January 10, 2025, the show’s fourth hour will be renamed Today With Jenna & Friends. A rotating panel of guest cohosts will join Jenna as NBC continues to search for a permanent replacement for Hoda.
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