'Today' hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager laud Oprah Winfrey for admitting to use weight-loss drug

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: ‘Today’ beloved host Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager praised Oprah Winfrey for admitting to using weight-loss drugs following her incredible transformation.

Winfrey has been no stranger to public scrutiny regarding her weight. 

Throughout her extensive time in the public eye, the iconic figure's journey with her body has been a focal point in the media, prominently featured on magazine covers, and explored in episodes of her long-running and successful talk show, which spanned 25 seasons.

Approaching her 70th birthday next month, Winfrey expressed optimism about her improved ability to maintain a healthy weight long-term and eliminate any lingering feelings of shame.

Employing a holistic strategy involving regular exercise and lifestyle adjustments, Winfrey acknowledges incorporating a weight-loss medication into her regimen as part of her comprehensive approach.

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager lauds Oprah Winfrey fessing use of weight-loss drug

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager expressed admiration for Oprah Winfrey's openness about using a weight-loss drug.

Kotb highlighted during ‘Today with Hoda and Jenna’ segment, “First of all, it works for Oprah, and she’s saying it out loud, which is awesome because I don’t know how many people, if any of us, know who are taking these [drugs] but are doing it in secret and saying, I’m just drinking water or I’m just walking.”

Kotb pointed out the potential harm of not sharing the complete truth, as it can lead others to believe that “nothing works for me” before realizing that achieving desired results may involve more than just focusing on fitness and diet alone.

The host further added, “She’s about to be 70. Oprah Winfrey –– who looks spectacular –– is about to be 70 years old, and she’s going into this next decade saying, You know what?!”

At 59-years-old, Kotb underscored the significance of weight loss as a crucial health factor, emphasizing that it goes beyond mere “cosmetic or vain thing.”

In agreement with her co-host, Jenna Bush Hager acknowledged that Winfrey, at 69, not only “eats very healthy” but has also faced “a lifetime of people talking about what she looks like” scrutiny regarding her appearance.

Hager added, “Isn’t Oprah cool? When everybody else seems to be hiding it, she’s telling the truth.”

Additionally, Winfrey revealed to People about taking weight-loss drug.

She said, “It was public sport to make fun of me for 25 years. I have been blamed and shamed, and I blamed and shamed myself."

Winfrey added, “The fact that there's a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for. I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself."

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager reveal their kids call them ‘bro’

Earlier this week, ‘Today With Hoda & Jenna,’ the cohosts engaged in a conversation about a TikTok video that had gone viral.

In the video, a middle school math teacher shared a humorous compilation of slang terms he had picked up from his students.

"Consider this: my kids, aged six and four, frequently use the word 'bruh,'" mentioned Kotb, 59, referring to her daughters Haley and Hope, whom she shares with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman.

Hoda Kotb said of her daughters Haley and Hope, “How about this? You know which one [word] my kids use a lot and they are six and four? Bruh.”

Hager, who has daughters Mila, Poppy, and Hal with husband Henry Hager, chimed in humorously, "[My kids] call me 'bro.' Why would they call us, their loving mothers, bro?”

Kotb, on her end, emphasized that she doesn't tolerate her daughters addressing her using that term.

She said, “I always say to my kids, ‘You do not call your mother bro.’”            

However, Bush Hager hasn't been as successful in asserting authority. She informed Kotb that her kids also enjoy addressing her by her full name.

Kotb asked in disbelief after Hager revealed her kids call her by full name, “Wait, they call you Jenna Bush in your own house?”

She said, “All of them, all three of them gang up against me and I’m like, ‘You wanna try mom?’ And they’re like, ‘You call me Mila, I call you Jenna.'”

Kotb responded, “You’re losing the fight. No, you’ve lost the fight,” and Hager agreed, “It’s gone.”