Hoda Kotb Breaks Silence on Kelly Rowland ‘Today’ Walkout & Dressing …

As Hoda Kotb breaks her silence on Kelly Rowland’s vanishing act, Today Show viewers are trying to make sense of the guest host drama.

As Jennifer Lopez teases an end to her music career after releasing a wildly indulgent autobiographical movie, she is of course making the rounds and doing interviews.

J. Lo being who she is, she apparently made sure that she had the best dressing room for her Today Show interview.

Too nice, it seems. Kelly Rowland walked out of a guest hosting gig, leaving NBC scrambling to fill in. What happened?

Things grew awkward for Hoda Kotb on the ‘Today Show’ last week

On Thursday, Rita Ora was Hoda Kotb’s cohost on NBC’s Today Show. By all accounts, she did a bang-up job.

But she was not the guest host whom Hoda, or the network, had expected.

Rita Ora had been lined up as a regular guest. Kelly Rowland, on the other hand, was going to be a guest host … until mere minutes before the broadcast.

Neither Hoda nor Rita attempted to conceal the fact that Rita had only learned that she was filling in for Hoda minutes before airtime.

Then, reports dished that Kelly Rowland had walked out of her Today Show guest hosting gig over the dressing room situation.

“Kelly and her team were not happy. They did not like the dressing room, so they decided to pull her off the show, leaving [Kotb] without a guest host for the 10 a.m. hour,” an inside source told Page Six.

Why did Kelly Rowland back out of guest hosting?

Apparently, Kelly Rowland had already played a few rounds of “musical dressing rooms” while trying to find a satisfactory room.

According to the insider, this “made no sense” to the NBC employees at 30 Rockefeller Plaza because the singer is “beloved at Today.”

It is unclear what about the dressing rooms did not meet her standards … except that, reportedly, she couldn’t find one as nice as Jennifer Lopez’s. Kelly Rowland has not personally commented on what happened — not in public, anyway. Not yet.

Interestingly, Rita Ora has seemingly confirmed the reports about Rowland’s motives.

She herself has commented that everyone was “so lovely and kind.” It is good to hear that everyone was courteous to her, after she so graciously filled in at the last minute.

On Tuesday, February 20, Hoda Kotb spoke up — finally breaking her silence on what happened last week.

Hoda Kotb breaks her silence on Kelly Rowland’s ‘Today’ walkout

“I just want to say this: I have great love and admiration for Kelly Rowland,” she expressed on Tuesday.

“I adore her, and I want her to come back on our show, and I want her to host again,” she then emphasized.

Even her regular fellow host, Jenna Bush Hager, chimed in to note that Rowland is “welcome any time.” She added that “she’s the best.”

“Of course she is, of course she is! She can share my dressing room,” Kotb noted. “We’ll be in it together!”

She said this while laughing — and, seemingly, while confirming reports that Rowland had left over dressing room issues.

“But anyway, I just want to say we love her. We’ve loved her on this show for many, many years,” Kotb then very affirmingly reiterated.

Meanwhile, Sherri Shepherd wrote on social media — in response to a snarky comment — that “of course” her own show gave Kelly Rowland a “gorgeous room.”

Shepherd’s comment was not snarky or sarcastic. She filled with with heart and fire emojis to convey her sincerity.

Apparently, Kelly Rowland isn’t that difficult to please. Unless something else was going on, and it wasn’t really about dressing rooms.

Hoda Kotb Breaks Silence on Kelly Rowland ‘Today’ Walkout & Dressing … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.