Jenna Bush Hager reacts to Hoda Kotb’s TODAY show announcement

Following Hoda Kotb’s emotional announcement that she will be leaving TODAY next year, Jenna Bush Hager tearfully recalled how Hoda supported her when it came to Jenna becoming her co-host and part of the TODAY family.

“I come to you and you were the first to believe in me,” Jenna told Hoda on the fourth hour of TODAY on Sept. 26. “We have a lot of bosses and I like them, but this lady on Oct. 28, 2013 – I looked it up – said, ‘Hey, do you want to sit next to me? There’s room.'”

Hoda and Jenna celebrated their five-year anniversary as co-hosts of the fourth hour in April.

“Looking at you and seeing magic was one of the simplest things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Hoda told Jenna.

Hoda recalled that Jenna initially called her father, former President George W. Bush, to help her overcome her nervousness.

“You called your father, and I remember you were scared when you started working with me,” Hoda said.

“I called my dad when I started and he said, ‘I’m so happy for you. And Hoda is the star. You’re going to be OK with it, right? You’re going to be OK with sharing the spotlight with the star?’ And I said, ‘Yes, of course.'”

Jenna called her dad again after learning from Hoda that she had decided to leave TODAY but still stay in the NBC family.

“And then he said, ‘Oh, she’s leaving because it’s time and you’re going to be OK,'” Jenna said. “It’s your turn. It’s OK.”

“It’s your turn,” Hoda said. “Whoever sits in that seat is going to have the easiest job in the world because they’re sitting next to you. The only thing they have to do is not laugh so hard they pee their pants. That means they just have to hang on. You are that bright light, you always have been, and now it’s your turn. Your father is so wise.”

“If I shine, it is because I sit in your glow,” Jenna replied.

Jenna admittedly had to struggle when Hoda first told her the news.

“Hoda just told me a few days ago, and when she told me, my first reaction, from my gut, was almost crazy,” Jenna said. “I said, ‘No, you can’t go because we have all these people here.’ What I can feel sitting next to you is what’s between us, and it’s magical and powerful, and that’s what it feels like here.”

Jenna called Thursday a “bittersweet, beautiful day” because Hoda is “brave” and “doing what’s best for her girls.”

Hoda talked about how celebrating her 60th birthday in August put her in a reflective mood that fueled her resolve to make a change.

“I think when I look back on my sixties in ten years, they will be full of new adventures, hopefully building my entrepreneurial skills and also watching my children take baby steps. And that’s all.”

However, she knew that leaving her role as Jenna’s co-host would be a difficult decision.

“Some relationships are one in a million, and this is one,” she told Jenna. “And that’s why it’s hard, because it’s easy to say goodbye to something that’s not working, to something that’s so boring, to something you don’t want. But saying goodbye to something that’s great is hard.”

“That weighed heavily on me. I thought about it back and forth and then I thought to myself: I think I have to start making decisions in this decade.”

As Jenna noted, Hoda has more adventures ahead before she moves on to the next phase of her life and career.

“You see those tears. You see those sad faces. It’s because you are so loved and you made each and every one of us feel adored. We just can’t imagine life without you.

“But the good news is that we don’t have to imagine that, because you’re here for three more months! I promise you that the next three months won’t be all crying. We’ll have fun. We’ll celebrate you.”