Hoda Kotb’s 2024 Paris Olympics experience brought some laughs for her Today cohost Jenna Bush Hager.
“I didn’t have FOMO when you wore that poncho with Tom Cruise,” Bush Hager, 42, quipped on the Tuesday, August 13, episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna, referring to an Instagram pic Kotb, 60, posted of herself and Cruise, 62, at the opening ceremony last month.
She went on to joke: “I’m sorry, but you look like a condom. You do. … You put that poncho right around your head and tied it like a little balloon.”
In Kotb’s snap, she smiled for the camera in her poncho while standing next to Cruise, who appeared wet from the rainy weather. “Do you know when you dream of meeting Tom Cruise … And then it finally happens,” she wrote alongside her July 26 Instagram upload.
Though Kotb explained that she wore the poncho to protect her clothes and hair in the event she had to go on air during the event, Bush Hager continued to poke fun at her post’s caption. “The best part is she’s like, ‘I’ve always dreamed of meeting him.’ And I just wonder, honestly, in her dream, did she have a shower cap on?” she teased.
Bush Hager also compared Kotb’s poncho look to photos of her father, former President George W. Bush, struggling with his poncho at Donald Trump’s 2017 presidential inauguration. “I’m like, ‘You are my dad! You are my dad!’” she joked.
Later on Hoda & Jenna, Bush Hager showed a side-by-side of Kotb and her dad’s poncho pics, stating, “I mean, tell me y’all are not separated at birth.”
Bush Hager has previously made hilarious comparisons between her cohost and her father, revealing on an April episode of Hoda & Jenna that Bush, 78, inspired her nickname for Kotb.
“I call her Dad because she’s early to everything, always early, and she just reminds me of my father,” she said. “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.”
Adding to the pair’s connection, Bush Hager teamed up with her dad to create a heartfelt birthday present for Kotb. “I had my dad, who has started painting, paint your favorite photo of you holding your girls,” Bush Hager said on the Kotb’s 60th birthday celebration episode of Hoda & Jenna on Monday, August 12. The picture — which featured Kotb walking alongside her daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5 — brought both women to tears.
Monday marked one of Kotb’s first shows back in New York City after spending nearly two weeks in France covering the Olympics for Today. In addition to lending commentary to the opening ceremony, she and her colleagues Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Craig Melvin interviewed some of Team USA’s biggest stars and cheered on athletes at multiple events.
