Jenna Bush Hager is stepping into a new era as she launches 'Jenna & Friends,' a successor to 'Hoda & Jenna.' She reflects on the bittersweet goodbye to Hoda Kotb while embracing the excitement of this new chapter, which includes a lineup of A-list celebrity co-hosts.
Jenna Bush Hager is in go mode. It’s 8:30 a.m. and she’s already worked out, done breath work in the car to Manhattan, gotten her hair and makeup done, and reviewed her notes for the day’s show. When she first began co-hosting TODAY with Hoda & Jenna in 2019, Hoda Kotb had one piece of advice about the gig’s early hours: “Give yourself a morning.” Now, this disciplined routine is what helps Jenna be…well, Jenna.
Once 10 o’clock hits and the cameras begin rolling on TODAY’s fourth hour, Jenna is fully present. But it’s not 10 o’clock yet, and Jenna already seems exuberant. Walking through Studio 1A in full glam and a one-shouldered green sweater dress, no one is a stranger. She hugs multiple colleagues, takes photos with excited visitors, and graciously accepts several compliments — because she is quite literally glowing, both inside and out. (She tells a skeptical colleague that she swears by putting Bio Oil on her skin.) Part of the attention might be because our cameras are snapping away for this photo shoot, but it’s also symbolic. After five years as a co-host of TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, Jenna is stepping into a new era — and the world is watching. January 13 kicks off the beginning of Jenna & Friends — the successor to “Hoda & Jenna.” On the latter, it was the crackle of Hoda & Jenna’s genuine chemistry that resonated with audiences who saw themselves reflected in the hosts. And while Jenna feels bittersweet about saying goodbye to Hoda, she says her outlook is clear. “I feel like I’m going to feel nervous — which, to be honest, I haven’t been since my first day (at TODAY). I’ve felt nerves here and there, but not real nervousness. Not, ‘Holy moly, what are we starting?’ And that’s the sign of something super exciting.” So long to ‘Hoda & Jenna’ Jenna remembers the day in September 2024 Hoda asked to meet in her office; she had something to tell her. When Jenna got there, a candle was burning. There, before the rest of the world knew, Hoda broke the news: She was moving on from TODAY. At age 60, she was ready to spend more time with her young children. Jenna’s first reaction? “I was like, ‘Wait, you can’t, you can’t go.’ And she said: ‘...Well, I’m going,’” Jenna says, laughing. Shocked by the news, Jenna immediately called her parents, former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, in tears. “I was crying in such a way that they thought something really bad had happened. When they found out that it was just that Hoda was ready to move on to other chapters, they said, ‘Oh, Jenna, it’s gonna be OK.’ They basically said, ‘This is your time. Enjoy it. You’re ready for it,’” she says, calling them “so supportive.” Still, moving on from this “wonderful, wonderful time” has been a journey. Jenna says she has moved through the five stages of grief and has now reached the acceptance that eluded her when she first heard the news. “I’m so proud of Hoda. I think she’s doing exactly what she needs to do at this moment for her.” For Jenna, this is more than the loss of a co-host, but also the loss of a champion. When Jenna first appeared on TODAY in 2009, she was a 27-year-old grade school teacher in Baltimore who was on the show to promote “Ana’s Story,” a book she wrote about the 17-year-old single mother living with HIV/AIDs she had met while working as a UNICEF intern in Latin America. An executive producer thought Jenna had the right spark for TV — and Hoda agreed. “I never thought I would’ve hosted an hour. But Hoda saw that in me,” Jenna says, adding that through the years, Hoda helped her push past insecurities. Jenna was promoted to a full-time co-host role in 2019 when Kathie Lee Gifford departed “Kathie Lee & Hoda.” The night before she co-hosted for the first time, Jenna joked to her husband, financier Henry Hager, “You’re going to have to tranquilize me, I’m so excited.” But Jenna clarifies she’s not really losing Hoda. “She’s going to be in my life forever, whether she likes it or not. There’s no way we can go from having the type of relationship we have now — which is like, wildly intimate — to nothing. I told her, ‘I need to get a date on the books now, because I need something to look forward to with you in my life.’” Hello to ‘Jenna & Friends’ Now, Jenna begins her “dating era” as new co-hosts — including celebrities, comedians, fellow anchors and friends of the show — cycle into the seat beside her. “Jenna & Friends” kicks off with Taraji P. Henson co-hosting in January, followed by names like Eva Longoria, Keke Palmer and Scarlett Johansson. “It’s just wild — just the fact that these A-list of stars who could be doing anything want to be sitting on our set is a testament to the show and to what we’ve built,” Jenna says. She compares the process of working with her team to select a new co-host to dating. But instead of putting on pressure to find “the one,” she wants to enjoy the process. “It’s more like, ‘Let’s have fu
JENNA BUSH HAGER HODA KOTB TODAY SHOW JENNA & FRIENDS NEW CHAPTER
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