“I FaceTimed you today!”

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager pictured in 2021. Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Hoda Kotb gave some support to her former cohost, Jenna Bush Hager, on Today this week when she made a surprise appearance.

The former morning show host visited Bush Hager and current cohost Dwyane Wade behind the scenes. The account behind the renamed series, Today With Jenna & Friends, formerly named Today With Hoda & Jenna, explained that Kotb “dropped in to show her love and support” for the team. Some went in for hugs.

Kotb’s visit during the daily briefing meeting was a hit. “What is happening? What is happening?” Bush Hager exclaimed. “I FaceTimed you today!”

Kotb’s final day as an employee at the show was Jan. 10. She had spent nearly three decades at NBC, the network said. She worked on Dateline and as an anchor of the fourth hour of Today with Kathie Lee Gifford before former first daughter Bush Hager joined the show. Kotb and Savannah Guthrie had been at the helm of the earlier, longer news and lifestyle broadcast for more than five years.

The NBC News veteran announced in September that she would leave the network’s signature morning show to spend more time with her family, which includes daughters Haley Joy, 9, and 5-year-old Hope Catherine.

“I’ve been weighing this decision for quite a while — Am I truly ready?” Kotb wrote in a letter to NBC staff that the network later shared. “But, my sixtieth birthday celebration on the Plaza felt like a shift. Like a massive, joyful YES, you are! I saw it all so clearly: my broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie. I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited.”

Hoda Kotb cries on last Today episode as Kermit sings ‘Rainbow Connection’ to her

She later elaborated on the reference to the birthday celebration that she mentioned, which was held in August on Rockefeller Plaza.

“I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, This is what the top of the wave feels like for me,” Kotb said of her decision on Today. “And I thought it can’t get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on.”

In addition to Wade, Bush Hager’s rotating group of celebrity guest hosts has so far included the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Keke Palmer, Eva Longoria, Ciara, and Wynonna Judd.