Jenna Bush Hager Opens Up About Feeling Like an Unwanted 'Third Wheel' During Andy Cohen's Co-Hosting Stints with Hoda Kotb - lulu

(L-R) Hoda Kotb, Andy Cohen and Jenna Bush Hager on 'Watch What Happens Live'. Photo: 

Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Jenna Bush Hager is making a bestie confession.

When Andy Cohen joined the television personality on the April 22 broadcast of Today with Jenna & Friends, Bush, 43, admitted to feeling left out whenever the 56-year-old Bravo mogul would visit her and her former co-host. Hoda Kotb, on the daytime show.

"I always felt like, because you and Hoda have a friendship, Hoda and I have a friendship, when you would come, I was like, ‘Am I on a triple date?’" she said, to which Cohen asked, "Did you feel like the third wheel?"

(L) Hoda Kotb and Andy Cohen on 'Today'. Nathan Congleton/NBC

"A little," Bush Hager admitted. "Not in a good way, but it was okay because I love to watch people love Hoda, you know, she’s my bestie."

In September 2024, Kotb announced her plans to leave her role at Today after nearly two decades.

The journalist, 60, addressed her exit in a letter sent to NBC staff and revealed that she was leaving in order to spend more time with her family.

Hoda Kotb on 'Today'. 

Nathan Congleton/NBC/Getty

"I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one. And you all are the reason why," she wrote. "My broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie."

On Jenna & Friends, Cohen asked how often Bush Hager kept in touch with Kotb since her departure.

"I talk to Hoda all the time. Not enough," she said. "I’d like to talk to her every day if I could and that’s what I had, but the thing is, and this is the thing about Hoda, she still wakes up at 4:30 in the morning, which is insane."

For Cohen's part, he admitted that the two didn't speak "often," but there was "no beef" in between them.

Ahead of Kotb's final episode on Today, Cohen made an appearance on Today with Hoda and Jenna in January, where he listed some of his favorite qualities about his friend.

He began by telling Kotb she had the "best head of hair on television" and praising her "bravery and wherewithal" for leaving while she was at the top of her game.

After jokingly calling her the "Kathie Lee [Gifford] whisperer," Cohen revealed that Kotb's sense of "courage and strength" had impacted him greatly and shared how she inspired him to become a dad later in life.