Kotb previously co-hosted ‘Today with Hoda & Jenna’ before exiting the ‘Today’ show in January

NBC

Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb on ‘Today’ on Sept. 9, 2025.

NEED TO KNOW

Hoda Kotb returned to the Today show on Tuesday, Sept. 9

While reuniting with her former co-workers, she teased Jenna Bush Hager, admitting that she doesn’t watch Today with Jenna & Friends

Kotb exited the Today show in January after years co-hosting Today with Hoda & Jenna as well as manning the news desk opposite Savannah Guthrie

Hoda Kotb might be Jenna Bush Hager’s biggest fan, but that doesn’t mean she’s up early watching Today with Jenna & Friends.

The 61-year-old former Today co-anchor stopped by the show on Tuesday, Sept. 9, where she reunited with her pals and former co-workers, updating them on her life after leaving the NBC morning show in January.

“It’s just a different life. But it’s funny how easily you can find yourself starting something new,” Kotb shared. “I mean, I miss you guys like crazy. I miss everybody. Being here made my heart hurt a little bit.”

NBC

Hoda Kotb returns to the ‘Today’ show on Sept. 9, 2025.

Kotb’s former Today with Hoda & Jenna co-host, Bush Hager, quipped, “Well, you can always come back!”

“Jenna’s still searching for friends!” Savannah Guthrie joked of the Today with Jenna & Friends co-host.

Kotb then asked Bush Hager how her show was going, adding, “You look really, it’s been going really really well.”

“Thank you. You pretend you’ve been watching,” Bush Hager teased.

“I don’t, I don’t. But I hear it’s amazing!” Kotb said as the rest of her former co-workers laughed. “But you guys have been doing so, so well. It’s been fun to watch.”

Kotb was excited to return to the Today Show Plaza on Tuesday, surprising the morning team by jumping up and down and holding a sign that read “Today Bucket List” with a check mark.

She also shared an update on her two daughters, Haley Joy, 8, and Hope Catherine, 6, after she left the show to spend more time with them.

“They love school, we have our new puppy,” Kotb said of her daughters. “So our life has started this rhythm where I walk the girls to school then I walk to my office. I have an office in my town. And I’m just kind of building something. Building a business is hard. I had no idea all the stuff, but it’s been so fun, challenging.”

Back in May, Kotb exclusively revealed to PEOPLE that her daughter Hope had been privately diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease which prevents the pancreas from making its own insulin, requiring vigilant blood sugar monitoring and frequent insulin injections.

“I really wanted to and needed to be here to watch over her. So, whenever she needs anything, and it can happen at night, multiple times, I’m up — I’m up up up,” Kotb told PEOPLE at the time. “But I would never, ever want Hope to one day grow up and say, ‘Oh, my mom left her job because [of me].’ It wasn’t that alone. But if you look at it cumulatively, it was a part of that decision.”