The ‘Today’ show welcomed Jennifer Garner and her mom Pat on Monday for a cooking segment with Carson Daly, but couldn’t resist having a sweet sit-down with the mother-daughter duo first.
Jennifer Garner and her mom Pat dropped by Today on Monday for a cooking demonstration, but things got a little bit emotional when Hoda Kotb brought up the passing of Pat’s husband William, who died March 30.
“Your husband passed a little bit ago, and I can only imagine how hard it was to get out of bed, to just start another day, but one day you just decided, ‘Today’s the day,'” Hoda said to Pat, saying she admired her ability to do that.
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“Well I pretty much decided anyway, before, that I would be all right. I was so worried about being a widow and then one day I had an epiphany, ‘You will be alright.'”
“And I really have been alright,” Pat continued. Choking up a bit, she added, “Now, I miss him and I so wanted to tell him I was gonna be on the ‘Today’ show.”
Hoda and co-host Savannah Guthrie were both visibly moved, too, with Hoda seen wiping a tear.
“He loved how much people love you, so he would be right there smiling,” Jennifer told her mom.
She also talked about her tribute to her father, which she posted to her Instagram on April 1, the day after he passed.
“Oh yeah, I mean how lucky [am I] to grow up with parents like mine?” she mused. “I’ve always been aware of it, my sisters and I are… we’re always really aware.”
In her touching post, she wrote that the death of her father after achieving 85 years is “no tragedy,” and that he’d lived “a healthy, wonderful life.” Instead, she said the day was for “gratitude.”
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“We are grateful for Dad’s gentle demeanor and quiet strength. For how he teased with a mischievous smile, and for the way he invented the role of all in, ever patient girl dad. We are grateful for his work ethic, leadership and faith.”
On Monday, she shared some live appreciation for her mom, too, noting, “I have a pretty special mom. So, my mom is not judgmental of people or of things or if things are happening to you. She is just kind of gifted at giving to people and seeing what people need and just quietly taking care of them.”
When Jennifer added that her mother also doesn’t believe in guilt, Pat jumped in to agree, saying, “I do not. Guilt as a useless emotion.”
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The mother-daughter duo were on the show after co-host Carson Daly had previously said they needed to have them on after seeing their adorable videos at home cooking together. Garner has called the IG segments their “Pretend Cooking Show” for years now, but with 16 million followers, it seems pretty real.
Even though Carson wasn’t officially part of the segment, came out to offer a gift bag to “Mama G” ahead of their actual cooking segment. Jennifer shared some behind-the-scenes moments from their time on Today, with Pat’s message that it “was about the most fun she’d ever had.”
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