Jenna Bush Hager Hoda Kotb Blake Shelton

Jenna Bush Hager will always be Hoda Kotb‘s matchmaker, whether they’re still on the air together or not.

The Today co-hosts had an interesting experience on today’s broadcast when Bush Hager surprised Kotb with a video call from Blake Shelton, who has appeared on the broadcast several times over the years as a guest and co-host with Kotb. But the country singer and former Voice host, whom Kotb once described as “definitely datable” on the show, shocked everyone in the studio when he shared a rather touching memory he had of Kotb.

The conversation got off to a hilarious start when Bush Hager announced, “Hoda was in love with you for many years. I think she’s let that go, but she still adores you and I know you adore her.”

Kotb certainly did not deny it. Shelton largely ignored Bush Hager’s confession as he thanked Kotb for welcoming him on Today all those years ago, until he later added, “It’s funny, too, that you talked about Hoda saying I was her first love or whatever. I did run into her in Nashville one time, off camera, it had nothing to do with television or anything. And I thought it was going to be our moment.

“But she completely ran away from me. I mean, she ran away from me like totally afraid of me,” he continued.

Both Kotb and Bush Hager gasped in shock. “Wait, wait. What?!” Kotb responded.

Shelton replied, “Yes, remember at the number one party I was like, ‘Hoda, you’re here!’ And you were like, ‘I gotta go!’” Kotb then insinuated that she may have been drinking. But she and Bush Hager maintained that she is “not leaving parties early anymore” once she retires.

Bush Hager then got straight to the point by asking him, “Would you have shot your shot? Would you have leaned in and given her a little— I mean this was before Gwen [Stefani], let’s just put that out there.”

Shelton and Stefani have been married since 2021. Ever the loyal husband, Shelton responded by warning Bush Hager to “slow your roll a little bit.”

“I’m just saying I saw Hoda in Nashville and she ran away from me at a party,” he said as the Today hosts laughed. “That’s all I’m saying.”

But love was definitely in the air! They then shared a clip of Shelton serenading Kotb with his guitar when he was guest hosting on Today With Kathie and Hoda in August 2010, and Kotb certainly appeared to be enjoying herself.

Photo: NBC

“I do remember Blake, the time we were sitting on set together and Blake you started singing,” Kotb recalled. “I think it was the first time I felt like someone was singing to me.”

Their chemistry was so palpable that Bush Hager could be heard saying, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” as it aired during the broadcast. “Wait, Blake you tried to kiss her at that party,” she then told him. “I felt it. I felt it.”

Shelton played Bush Hager’s statement off by joking that you can’t “act like that on TV anymore.”

She later invited him to join her on Today With Jenna & Friends after Kotb’s retirement. “You can sing to me like that any time you want,” she joked.

Today with Hoda & Jenna airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.