Jenna Bush Hager Claims NBC Banned Her from Using 1 Phrase on the Today Show

The Today on-air presenters reveal the rules they follow.

In the episode of December 2 Today with Hoda and Jenna, Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager talk about how they had to change when they joined NBC. Bush Hager, who started as a correspondent in 2009, claims there was one phrase the network banned her from at the time.

“[They were like]’Hey, everybody,’ is not for the whole country,’” she declared. “And I said, ‘Well, but that’s who I am.’ It’s so strange, and it happens in life. If you have friends and then all of a sudden you’re not acting like you are and you’re like, ‘Wait,’ something in your gut is wrong.”

“When they said, ‘You can’t say everybody,’ in my gut, I was like, ‘But why? We have to pretend we’re journalists?’” Bush Hager claimed. “Because whenever you pretend to be a journalist, I felt like I was acting. And we all know from [our Titanic Halloween skit]I’m not a great actor. When you try to pretend to be someone else, you feel crazy.”

Hoda Kotb shares the funny story behind daughter Haley’s early Christmas present for Jenna Bush Hager

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.

Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

The rules of working in the news have reportedly extended to their appearance as well. Kotb claimed he felt like they were told, “You’re welcome, but you have to change.”

“If you don’t fit them, they want you to wear something a certain way, cut your hair a certain way, talk a certain way,” she said, referring to the on-air broadcaster.

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She went on to explain that she and Bush Hager later buckled under pressure to perform that front, which can make one feel like they’re “losing who they are.” Still, she said it took “a long time.”

“It took me longer than, I think, you,” Kotb, who has been with NBC since 1998 when she Date line correspondent, he told Bush Hager.

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.

Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

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December marks the last full month of Kotba Today after she announced her exit from the morning talk show in September. Kotb has been a co-host for 17 years and shared the news in a letter to NBC and later on air surrounded by her co-stars Al Roker, Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie, Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones.

“I had my children later in life and I thought they deserved a bigger slice of my time than I did,” she explained. “I feel like we only have a limited amount of time. And so, with all that said, this is the hardest thing in the world.”

“I’ll be here through the first of the year — after the first of the year — and I’ll stay in the NBC family, but it’s a big deal for me,” she continued through tears.

Bush Hager then made everyone laugh by saying, “It’s not over. I’m going to show up at your house, like a Zac Brown stalker. I’m going to be on your doorstep. And we’re your friends forever.”

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Source: HIS Education