Hoda Kotb Says Earlier Boss Instructed Her to ‘Get on the Treadmill’

On the Monday episode of In the present day with Hoda and Jenna, the host revealed that she may relate with actor Timothée Chalamet, who just lately stated he misplaced gigs for not having “the precise physique” for motion roles in movies like Divergent and The Maze Runner.

After discussing his quotes with cohost Jenna Bush Hager, Kotb, 60, opened up about her private expertise with criticism about her physique.

“I nonetheless keep in mind I had simply began working at a small market, and I performed basketball in highschool, so I all the time assumed I used to be in form although actually after faculty and stuff, I wasn’t,” she stated.

“I nonetheless keep in mind my boss going to me, ‘Hey, Hoda … I obtained an thought, possibly you may wanna attempt to get on the treadmill,'” she claimed.

Kotb stated she had a distinct notion of herself “that’s not the notion of the world” — with Bush Hager chiming in, “reverse physique dysmorphia” — earlier than revealing she reacted by saying, “What are you speaking about?”

“For those who do not match, they need you put on one thing a sure means, lower your hair a sure means, converse a sure means,” she continued, as Bush Hager stated she was advised she could not say, “Y’all” after getting an on-camera gig as a result of it “is not for the entire nation.”

“I feel you realize whenever you’re pretending deep down,” added Hoda, “and it doesn’t matter what it’s, you begin dropping who you might be.”

Hager beforehand opened up about her expertise rising up because the daughter of former President George W. Bush — and claimed she was advised she was “chubby” by her grandmother, former First Woman, Barbara Bush.

“I really feel like even generally now once I really feel nice—I’ve three children, three C-sections; I really feel actually in my physique, and I consider it as an attractive factor—I will stroll in a pool and have a second,” she admitted in 2023.

Though Kotb did not reveal the identification of the boss that physique shamed her, she beforehand labored at a CBS native station in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1986. She additionally labored for a 12 months at an ABC native station in Moline, Illinois — and, from 1992 to 1998, she was a information anchor at a CBS station in New Orleans.

She later joined In the present day in September 2007.