Hoda Kotb Recalls Jenna Bush Hager’s ‘Weird Speech’ After Today Exit

Hoda Kotb will always remember what Jenna Bush Hager told her after she announced her exit from Today.

“This is how she starts off our staff meeting: ‘One time Hoda left a party with my purse,’” Kotb, 60, recalled during the Wednesday, October 9, episode of Today. “I was like, ‘What’s Jenna doing? My God, what a weird speech.’”

Kotb explained that there are 300 people on staff, and Bush Hager, 42, was “talking about some old party.”

“She goes, ‘You know what she did? She left the party early.’ And Jenna goes, ‘And she’s doing it again!’ She goes, ‘She’s leaving before the shots. She’s leaving before the party gets going, before the music,’” Kotb said. “And you made me laugh.”

Bush Hager pointed out that Kotb has earned the nickname “Houdini” through the years for her tendency to slip out of gatherings unnoticed.

“Hoda has a special name to it called the Houdini,” Bush Hager explained. “You go to a party, everybody’s chatting and all of a sudden, she’s out the door! And I’m like, ‘Wait — did you leave? Because you have my purse.’”

Kotb tearfully revealed last month that she is parting ways with the morning show after being with NBC for over three decades and joining Today in 2007. (She became an anchor alongside Savannah Guthrie in 2018.)

“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new. This is the right time for me to move on,” Kotb explained at the time, noting that her daughters were the motivation for her decision.

During the episode, Bush Hager got emotional while recalling Kotb telling her the news a few days prior.

“My first reaction was from my gut and it was almost crazy. … I said, ‘No, you can’t leave,’” Bush Hager said at the time. “You’re who I come to when I’m feeling joyful, when I’m feeling unsure. You are who I come to and you believed in me first. We have a lot of bosses and I love them, but this lady, on October 28, 2013 — I looked it up — said, ‘Hey, wanna come sit next to me? There’s room.’”

Following Kotb’s announcement, an NBC insider exclusively told Us Weekly that some were not surprised by her exit. “It’s such a hard job on your life,” the source said. “I think the average person understands that morning TV is not glamorous.”

Puck later released a report suggesting that Kotb’s departure may have been due to financial factors, citing a source with direct knowledge of her salary who said that Kotb was making over $20 million in her position — but NBC proposed a pay cut. An insider close to Kotb told Us that “salary played no role in Hoda’s decision.”