Hoda Kotb was left red-faced during Thursday’s episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna after her co-host Jenna Bush Hager ordered her to “Free your boobs!”
Hoda, 59, suffered a wardrobe malfunction on the pre-taped July 4 episode, as she opted to wear a chic, sleeveless red dress for the occasion.
Five minutes into the show, mother-of-two Hoda was seen fiddling with the straps of her chic number and admitted: “My bra doesn’t work! The outfit doesn’t work, okay? The bra is too big, the straps are too small, it doesn’t work! I can’t do anything!”
The two women were left cracking up as moments earlier, Jenna’s belly had made a ‘pretty weird noise’, prompting her to ask: ‘But why did my stomach make your dress fall down?’ while Hoda admitted that a crew member had told her to ‘fix it’.
“You know when you know you’re wearing a dress that you shouldn’t be wearing? Because it’s not right, but you know what, I just decided I was going to do it. Have you ever gone to a party and been like, ‘Okay, okay,’ and then you spend the whole party pulling and pushing and shoving things… not good! Anyway, I feel like I’m falling apart!” Hoda laughed.
Hoda Kotb suffered a wardrobe malfunction on Thursday’s episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna
Jenna Bush Hager ordered Hoda to ‘free her boobs’ after she admitted the red dress she was wearing wasn’t ‘working’
Jenna, 42, suggested: “You know what you have to do? Next time, take off your bra! Would you ever dare to free your boobs? Free your boobs, Hoda! It’s time! At this point in your life, when you’re about to turn 60, free your boobs! Let’s free them! Because if you took off your bra, you wouldn’t have this problem!”
Hoda was horrified at the suggestion and screamed, “No, I can’t!” as Jenna quickly continued with the show.
However, when she noticed Hoda still fidgeting with her dress, the former First Daughter yelled, “You look good! Do you want me to carry you?” ‘Take my bra off quickly? I can do it quickly, I can take it off…’ but Hoda ordered her: ‘No!’
The TV host’s wardrobe malfunction comes just a day after she admitted that her former co-host Kathie Lee Gifford “dazzled the crowd” with her “bare breasts” when she made her first guest appearance on Today.
Of course, Kathie, 70, hosted the show alongside Hoda for 11 years from 2008 to 2019, but during an appearance on Busy Philipps’ talk show Busy This Week, Hoda revealed how their partnership really came to fruition all those years ago.
It all started when Hoda asked Kathie to come to Today as a guest co-host simply because she was a huge fan of hers.
Luckily, Kathie agreed, and Hoda said of her first appearance: ‘That woman showed up, hair extensions, topless, ready to play. It was amazing. She wowed the crowd, she did what she does.
“When she was done, the bosses came up and shook her hand, and from that moment on, Kathie Lee was going to be on the Today show. She changed the face of that part of morning television.”
Jenna, a mother of three, didn’t let it go and even offered to take off Hoda’s bra.
Hoda’s bra strap was exposed as she refused to take it off and seemed disgusted by Jenna’s suggestion.
Hoda hosted the fourth hour of Today alongside Kathie Lee Gifford from 2008 to 2019.
Hoda even admitted that hosting Today with Kathie changed her perspective on her own television career.
“It was always like I was putting a circle in a square,” she explained. “I could feel it. It just wasn’t right, and when I sat down with Kathie that first time, I felt like I was surfing on a wave. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is what it feels like when you’re doing something you’re supposed to do.'”
The mother of two hosted the show for 11 years, but announced on air in December 2018 that she was stepping down.
“I have something to share with everyone. It’s bittersweet, as these things always are, but I’ve been here almost 11 years. I thought I’d stay a year. Something happened along the way and I fell in love with a beautiful Egyptian goddess and when it’s our 11th anniversary I’m leaving the Today show,” he said.
‘It’s an exciting time for me and I’m excited about the projects coming up, but it’s also difficult because the reason I stayed over a year is because I love everyone here.
‘I’ve been in this business for 120 years and I’ve never worked with a more wonderful group of people who give, give, give every day, four hours of live television five days a week.’
She continued: ‘We have fun, we laugh, we support each other, we know each other’s kids’ names and we know when someone is getting a colonoscopy.
“We live life together and no one else but my Hoda,” he added, before both broke down in tears.
