“Today” Fans Are Calling Hoda Kotb “One of the Kindest” After Her Emotional Fan Interaction

From Prevention

• Today co-host Hoda Kotb was featured on the OverheardCelebs Instagram page.

• Kotb sent a personal video to a breast cancer patient. Following the patient’s death, Kotb consoled her grieving friend after running into her a nail salon.

• The story touched thousands, and prompted many to share their own equally endearing run-ins with Kotb.

As a news anchor, best-selling author, and beloved personality, Hoda Kotb meets a lot of people. But there’s one fan interaction she won’t forget.

On Tuesday’s Today with Hoda & Jenna, Jenna Bush-Hager brought up an Instagram account called OverheardCelebs, where people share celebrity encounters, and Hoda had made the page. “About a year and a half ago, a woman recognized you in a nail salon,” Jenna told her. “She’d just lost her friend to breast cancer and you hugged her, consoled her. And then, you paid for her manicure before slipping out. Do you remember that?”

Hoda did. “I remember not knowing her friend had passed, I knew her friend had cancer at the time, and when I asked how she was doing, I remember she told me she had passed away. And it was so jarring.” She continued: “When someone’s in pain, you wanna do something … she was so sweet, such a sweet person.”

The actual post on OverheardCelebs went into more detail about Hoda’s kind gesture and revealed the fan’s name as Anne Gilberg. Apparently, shortly before Gilberg’s friend died, Hoda recorded a video message to lift her spirits. “It meant the world to her,” Gilberg wrote. “Especially given the fact that Hoda was a breast cancer survivor herself.”

Then, three weeks after the friend’s death, she spotted the talk show host in a nail salon. “I was getting a manicure, AirPods in, reading a book, oblivious to anyone,” she explained. “I happened to make eye contact with another patron. On second glance, I realized it was Hoda!”

She went up to thank her for recording her friend’s video. “When Hoda asked how she was doing, I burst into tears. Before I knew it, she was hugging me as if I was a long lost friend … I thanked her for her empathy.” Later, Gilbert went to pay for her service to learn that it’d been covered. “What that meant—not just to me, but to everyone who lost our dear friend—is impossible to put into words,” she wrote.

The story touched thousands, and prompted many to share their own equally endearing run-ins with Hoda. “I met Hoda at the CMT awards in Nashville a few years ago. I was a seat filler and she was a presenter,” one fan commented. “I said ‘I’m so sorry to bother you, but I would kick myself if I didn’t say hello to you because I just adore you!’ And she gave me a huge hug like we’ve know each other for years ... she is a serious angel.”

Another commenter met Hoda at Studio 1A: “My nephew with special needs got overwhelmed and started crying and immediately Hoda was so compassionate and tried to help calm him down and was so gracious. Our whole family remembers her kindness!”

“She is truly one of the kindest and heartwarming people I’ve ever encountered,” someone else wrote. “I don’t think I stopped smiling for days after I met her. How she seems on TV is exactly how she is in real life.”

The world needs more people like Hoda!

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