Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager. Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust
Jenna Bush Hager has formed a close bond with Hoda Kotb over the years, so much so that she gave her Today cohost a hilarious nickname.
While recounting the pair’s night of fun in New Orleans on the Thursday, April 11, episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna, Bush Hager, 42, revealed that she sometimes refers to Kotb, 59, as “Dad.”
“I call her Dad because she’s early to everything, always early, and she just reminds me of my father,” explained Bush Hager, whose father is former President George W. Bush. “I’m like, ‘Dad says we can’t drink too much, Talia [Parkinson-Jones],’ to our boss. ‘Dad says put the vodka down.’ But guess what? Dad wasn’t out the night we got here.”
George, 77, and his wife, Laura Bush, welcomed Jenna and her fraternal twin sister, Barbara Bush, in 1981. Bush Hager joined Kotb as cohost of the fourth hour of Today in April 2019 after Kathie Lee Gifford stepped down from the role.
Upon arriving in New Orleans ahead of their back-to-back fifth anniversary shows, Bush Hager and Kotb traded a “chill” evening in for a fun night out, complete with jamming to Beyoncé songs while riding a party bus from the airport into the city.
A video package aired during the episode also showed Bush Hager and Kotb taking a burlesque lesson, crashing a bachelorette party and enjoying a local concert.
“You weren’t Dad that night,” Bush Hager told Kotb of her behavior the day before. “Hoda took a shot. We went into a dive bar, and they were yelling ‘shots,’ and before I even knew it, Hoda was in there pounding something. And then we danced, we had the best [time].”
Earlier in the episode, Kotb described the Louisiana city as “the place for people to come to get sane.” She explained: “You’re so buttoned-up … busy at work, week after week, your kids are crying, everybody needs you. You come to New Orleans and you know what you do? You rip off the tops of your buttons and you get to be yourself.”
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Bush Hager, for her part, added, “You go a little crazy in order to get sane.”
The duo kicked off their fifth anniversary celebrations on Monday, April 8. “It feels like it was yesterday, and it feels so profound to get to sit next to somebody that exudes joy no matter what you have going on,” Bush Hager gushed. “You greet me with a smile every single day, and I know it’s not always easy. In fact, it’s probably not easy at all. But you’re here and you sit next to me.”
Kotb went on to note that she is grateful for the bond they have formed over the past several years. “Every day, it’s something different, something new, something we’re learning,” she told Bush Hager. “You’ve led me down a path because of people who you know in your life and people who are, kind of, healers who’ve helped heal me. And, I mean, it’s all meant to be. This is all meant to be.”
Monday’s episode was full of special surprises for the pair, including being gifted an original song by Meghan Trainor and having New York City Mayor Eric Adams declare the date as Today With Hoda & Jenna Day in the city. They wrapped up their Monday festivities by lighting the Empire State Building in the show’s pink and purple signature colors.
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