Hoda Kotb Says Previous Boss Told Her to ‘Get on the Treadmill’

On the Monday episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna, the host revealed that she could relate with actor Timothée Chalamet, who recently said he lost gigs for not having “the right body” for action roles in films like Divergent and The Maze Runner.

After discussing his quotes with cohost Jenna Bush Hager, Kotb, 60, opened up about her personal experience with criticism about her body.

“I still remember I had just started working at a small market, and I played basketball in high school, so I always assumed I was in shape even though literally after college and stuff, I wasn’t,” she said.

“I still remember my boss going to me, ‘Hey, Hoda … I got an idea, maybe you might wanna try to get on the treadmill,'” she claimed.

Kotb said she had a different perception of herself “that is not the perception of the world” — with Bush Hager chiming in, “reverse body dysmorphia” — before revealing she reacted by saying, “What are you talking about?”

“If you don’t fit, they want you wear something a certain way, cut your hair a certain way, speak a certain way,” she continued, as Bush Hager said she was told she couldn’t say, “Y’all” after getting an on-camera gig because it “isn’t for the whole country.”

“I think you know when you’re pretending deep down,” added Hoda, “and no matter what it is, you start losing who you are.”

Hager previously opened up about her experience growing up as the daughter of former President George W. Bush — and claimed she was told she was “chubby” by her grandmother, former First Lady, Barbara Bush.

“I feel like even sometimes now when I feel great—I have three kids, three C-sections; I feel really in my body, and I think of it as a beautiful thing—I’ll walk in a pool and have a moment,” she admitted in 2023.

Although Kotb didn’t reveal the identity of the boss that body shamed her, she previously worked at a CBS local station in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1986. She also worked for a year at an ABC local station in Moline, Illinois — and, from 1992 to 1998, she was a news anchor at a CBS station in New Orleans.

She later joined Today in September 2007.