Hoda Kotb left her Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager momentarily speechless by recalling an unthinkable exchange from before her time at NBC in which an unnamed boss critiqued her weight.
On Monday, December 2, the anchors of Today With Hoda and Jenna discussed how Timothee Chalamet has successfully pivoted to action roles after reportedly losing out on previous jobs because of his body type. “I mean, look, sometimes people will tell you things that you’re not right for,” Kotb said.
“I still remember had just started working in a small market,” she continued. “And I played basketball in high school so I always assumed I was in shape even though, literally, after college and stuff I wasn’t.”
“I still remember my boss going to me, ‘Hey, Hoda,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah?’ He goes, ‘Hey, I got an idea. Maybe you might wanna try to get on the treadmill,’” Kotb said. The 60-year-old added levity by impersonating her then-boss’s voice and doing a treadmill-running motion.
Bush Hager looked shocked and stared directly into the camera, gasping, “No!” Kotb continued, “And I go, ‘What?!’ You know when you have a perception of yourself that is not the perception of the world?” Bush Hager joked, “Yeah, it’s called reverse body dysmorphia. I have it too.”
“Yeah, so I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Kotb recalled. “But, if you don’t fit, they want you to wear something a certain way, cut your hair a certain way, speak a certain way.”
The shocking exchange can be seen around the 5 minute mark of the broadcast shared on YouTube below:
Bush Hager related to being told to change oneself, bringing up how she was originally asked to refrain from saying “y’all” on the Today show. She said she dismissed the idea, and that she couldn’t “pretend” to be a “serious news person” and continued saying the slang word.
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“I think you know when you’re pretending deep down and no matter what it is, you start losing who you are,” Kotb concluded, admitting that “sometimes” people have to make small changes to “fit into a work environment.”
Kotb made sure not to name names, but since she has worked for NBC for the last 26 years, the unnamed boss may have been from her local news days. Kotb worked at a CBS local station in Greenville, Mississippi after graduating from Virginia Tech in 1986.
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