Hoda Kotb had a hilarious — and painful — reason behind her shoe choice on the Wednesday, April 23, episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna.
“Why are you wearing tennis shoes? I mean, I know the answer but tell us why,” Jenna Bush Hager asked her cohost at the top of the show. Kotb, 59, replied that she opted for comfy shoes after getting into an “incident” on the New York City subway.
“I ran to another subway car and jammed my toe so hard,” she revealed. “But, you know, when you’re too busy caught up in the adrenaline of what was happening. So, my toe is fine now, and someone said [if] you can’t do a thing about it, tape it.”
Following the advice she heard, Kotb proceeded to tape her injured toe — but not with the proper supplies. “So last night, I had no tape except for Scotch,” she shared, prompting a shocked reaction from Bush Hager, 42.
‘Today’ Anchor Hoda Kotb Gushes Over Her ‘Love’ for Her Family
“No! You Scotch-taped your toe?” she exclaimed, to which Kotb replied, “I did. I taped it around, and then you’re supposed to tape it down. I Googled it.”
Kotb went on to explain that Scotch tape was all she could find after searching her home for medical tape. “I’m like, ‘I know we have a first aid kit.’ It was nowhere to be found,” she stated. “My kids have that colored tape, which I thought would be good. I couldn’t find one roll. We have 50 rolls. The only thing I could find was that old Christmas tape.”
Kotb, who shares her daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, with her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman, isn’t the only Today host to recently suffer an injury. Third hour of Today cohost Sheinelle Jones revealed via Instagram earlier this month that she hurt her knees while running errands.
“I’m running down the street, and I fall on my face in New York City,” she shared in an April 2 video. “And so, I’m just bringing you behind the scenes, here. The last couple [of] days, after the show, I have been icing my knees.”
Jones, 46, went on to poke fun at her clumsiness, stating, “I did a whole marathon situation, never hurt myself, and then I’m running out of the Dollar Store with plastic plates and paper plates and running to Insomnia [Cookies] to get some cookies for my friends and fall on my face in front of everybody in the middle of the street.” She also shared a photo of her “out of control bruises” via her Instagram Story that same day.
Jones, who celebrated her 46th birthday on Today last week, previously filled in for Kotb on the show’s April 10 episode as she traveled to New Orleans for Hoda & Jenna’s 5th anniversary special shows.
Prior to heading to Louisiana, Kotb and Bush Hager commemorated their 5th cohosting anniversary on April 8 with a show full of surprises, including an original song from Meghan Trainor, lighting up the Empire State Building in the show’s pink and purple colors and NYC mayor Eric Adams declaring the day Today With Hoda & Jenna Day in the city.
“Every day, it’s something different, something new, something we’re learning,” Kotb lovingly told Bush Hager. “You’ve led me down a path because of people who you know in your life and people who are, kind of, healers who’ve helped heal me. And, I mean, it’s all meant to be. This is all meant to be.”
