Hoda Kotb reveals she was once fat-shamed by ex-boss who asked her to ‘get on the treadmill’
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Hoda Kotb has shared a very shocking experience from her initial professional days.
During the Monday, December 2, episode of ‘Today With Hoda and Jenna’, the broadcaster disclosed that an unnamed boss had fat-shamed her and also asked her to “get on the treadmill”, as reported by TV Insider.
The two women first discussed the challenges actor Timothee Chalamet faced because of his body type before Kotb said, “I still remember had just started working in a small market. And I played basketball in high school so I always assumed I was in shape even though, literally, after college and stuff I wasn’t.”
Hoda Kotb addresses challenges of ‘fitting in’
The 60-year-old journalist revealed, “I still remember my boss going to me, ‘Hey, Hoda,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah?’ He goes, ‘Hey, I got an idea. Maybe you might wanna try to get on the treadmill.’”
Continuing further, Kotb mentioned, “And I go, ‘What?!’ You know when you have a perception of yourself that is not the perception of the world?”
To which, Jenna Bush Hager remarked, “Yeah, it’s called reverse body dysmorphia. I have it too.”
Kotb then went on to elaborate on her experience, “Yeah, so I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ But, if you don’t fit, they want you to wear something a certain way, cut your hair a certain way, speak a certain way.”
“I think you know when you’re pretending, and no matter what it is, you start losing who you are. But sometimes, there are things you have to do to fit into a work environment,” she added.
Hoda Kotb calls her new project 'fun and helpful'
This came a month after Kotb spoke about her new project as she’s leaving ‘Today’ after 17 years.
She told PEOPLE, “I have something that I am super excited about that's in its infancy. It's a whole wellness situation, and I got lit up by that just from stuff I've been working on and doing on myself.”
“I've learned to do a bunch of different things with breath works and what not through friends, through Jenna [Bush Hager], through Maria [Shriver], through all these different people, and I've been loving it,” she stated.
Describing her new project as “fun” and “helpful”, Kotb added that she's “still early on in the stages” of getting a “really good wellness app together and do wellness retreats and things like that.”
