Hoda Kotb has joked Kelly Rowland can share her dressing room and is welcome back anytime on the ‘Today’ show.
Hoda Kotb has joked Kelly Rowland can share her dressing room and is welcome back anytime on the ‘Today’ show
The 59-year-old broadcaster made the declaration amid reports singer Kelly, 43, had walked off her co-hosting gig on the series over backstage arrangements just before she and Hoda had been due to present its fourth hour last week.
Hoda has now said on ‘Today with Hoda and Jenna’ about how she holds no grudges against the performer: “I just wanna say this, I have great love and admiration for Kelly Rowland. I adore her. And I want her to come back on our show, and I want her to host again.”
Hoda’s co-host Jenna Bush Hager, 42, who had taken the day off last Thursday (15.02.24) when Kelly was set to fill in, agreed the former Destiny’s Child star singer is “welcome anytime”, adding: “She’s the best.”
Hoda went on: “Of course she is, of course she is! She can share my dressing room. We’ll be in it together!
“But anyway, I just want to say we love her. We’ve loved her on this show for many, many years.”
Jenna then recalled the first time the co-hosts had Kelly as a guest on their show when both of them begged her to “please host with us” one day.
Kelly’s absence last week left Hoda and the ‘Today’ show team scrambling for a co-host, and Rita Ora, 33,– who was scheduled to appear for an interview to promote the new season of ‘The Masked Singer’ stepped in for her fellow singer.
Hoda added: “On another note, too, we just wanna give a shout-out to Rita Ora, who kind of came in at the last second and really did a phenomenal job, so we have great women on this show.”
Jenna praised the host for handling Kelly’s no-show with grace and joked she “won’t take a day off until 2026”.
Kelly – who is yet to publicly address the alleged incident – was said to have left the ‘Today’ show after briefly appearing on it at 8am because the dressing rooms were apparently not up to her standards.
A source told Page Six: “Kelly and her team were not happy. They did not like the dressing room, so they decided to pull her off the show, leaving (Hoda) without a guest host for the 10am hour.”
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