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Hoda Kotb has opened up about the ‘hot’ way she met her police officer ex-boyfriend while nursing a broken heart.
The Today host reminisced about her former ‘knight in shining armor’ on Thursday’s show while chatting with Jenna Bush Hager about bouncing back after a split.
Kotb, 59, noted that ‘it looks like Joe Manganiello already moved on’ from his breakup with Sofía Vergara after he was spotted with actress Caitlin O’Connor.
‘Sometimes when you’re weak, you’re in a kind of rundown state after a breakup, you’re fragile, and then you meet someone. So that person is the knight in shining armor,’ she said.
Hoda Kotb, 59, opened up about how she met her police officer ex- boyfriend in a laundromat on the Today show Thursday
The host explained to Jenna Bush Hager that she was upset after ‘terrible breakup’ and waiting for her laundry to be done when he approached her. They talked and started dating
‘I think I told you, that happened to me. I had a terrible breakup and I was sitting in the laundromat, and I was so upset. I still remember sitting, hugging my knees, waiting for my laundry to be over.
‘And a police officer walked in and he goes, “Are you okay?” And I go, “No, I’m not okay.” And I started talking to him, and I started dating him.’
‘That is hot!’ Bush Hager, 41, said of their meet-cute, prompting laughter from both her co-star and the audience.
‘It was hot,’ Kotb admitted with an ear-to-ear grin.
‘What is the mistake there? In the laundromat?’ Bush Hager asked. ‘That’s a Colleen Hoover book, girl!’
Kobt told the former first daughter that they ‘dated for a while,’ but once she was back to her old self, it became apparent that they weren’t really compatible.
‘I realized he was a rescuer, and after a while, I didn’t need rescuing,’ she said.
The Hope is a Rainbow author explained that he kept wanting to help her in a way that she found ‘irritating’ when she was no longer heartbroken.
‘It was hot,’ Kotb admitted with an ear-to-ear grin, but she noted that their relationship didn’t work out because he was a ‘rescuer’ and she ‘didn’t need rescuing’
Bush Hager has been dying to set up Kotb since she broke up with her fiancé Joel Schiffman in January 2022
Kotb and Schiffman continue to co-parent their daughters Haley, six, and Hope, four, together, and she is optimistic that she will find love again one day
‘I’m actually a strong person, you just met me when I wasn’t, and now I am [again],’ she said of their romance coming to an end.
Kotb’s relationship with the police officer might not have worked out, but Bush Hager was all about their love story — even if it was brief.
‘But he also kind of brought you back to life. Whew!’ she said. ‘You need to go back to that laundromat! You never know who will walk in.’
Bush Hager has been dying to set up Kotb since she broke up with her fiancé Joel Schiffman in January 2022.
The former couple continues to co-parent their daughters Haley, six, and Hope, four, together, and she is optimistic that she will find love again one day.
Earlier in the segment, Bush Hager admitted that she once came close to getting a Destiny’s Child tribute tattoo on her back after a breakup with an ex-boyfriend.
‘I ended up getting back together with a person about 47 times,’ she recalled. ‘My friend, Tracy, was like, “It’s enough already, get up,” and we went out and danced and then I almost got “Survivor” tattooed on to my back.’
Shocked by her confession, a stunned Kotb responded, ‘Wait, what?’
‘That Destiny’s Child song was popular,’ Bush Hager explained, before adding, ‘We went to the tattoo parlor on 6th street. Thank you, Jesus, it was closed. Imagine if I had “Survivor” tattooed?’
