Hoda Kotb addresses Kelly Rowland walking out of Today show
Former Destiny’s Child member reportedly pulled out of the show after she was unimpressed with the state of her dressing room
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Your support makes all the difference.Hoda Kotb has shared a message to Kelly Rowland after the latter pulled out of co-hosting NBC’s Today with Hoda & Jenna last week because her dressing room was apparently “not up to par”.
After the “Motivation” singer’s brief appearance during the network’s 8am morning broadcast to promote her new Netflix movie, Mea Culpa, Rowland, 43, was scheduled to co-host NBC’s 10th-hour show with Kotb.
However, according to PageSix, sources said that Rowland and her team “did not like the dressing room, so they decided to pull her off the show, leaving [Kotb] without a guest host for the 10am hour”.
It’s been a week since the supposed incident, and Kotb has finally addressed it on-air.
“I just want to say this: I have great love and admiration for Kelly Rowland. I adore her, and I want her to come back on our show, and I want her to host again,” she said on Tuesday’s (20 February) episode of the talk show.
Her co-host Jenna Hager agreed, saying that Rowland is “welcome anytime. She’s the best”.
“Of course she is, of course she is! She can share my dressing room. We’ll be in it together!” Kotb added, appearing to reference the reported dressing room drama. “But anyway, I just want to say we love her. We’ve loved her on this show for many, many years.”
Rowlands representative did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
Following Rowland’s last-minute walkout, singer Rita Ora stepped in and joined Kotb.
Throughout the hour, Kotb and Ora made numerous references to how Ora had only found out minutes before airtime that she would be filling in.
Ora had originally been there to promote the forthcoming season of The Masked Singer.
It was announced last month that the “Let You Love Me” singer would be replacing Nicole Scherzinger on the reality singing series’ judging panel. She will be joining returning panelists Robin Thicke, Ken Jeong and Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg.
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