Jenna Bush Hager Cries as She Says She 'Wasn't There' for Hoda Kotb When Daughter Hope Was Sick

The mom of three got emotional as she admitted she "didn't know what to do" when Hoda Kotb's daughter Hope was recently hospitalized

Jenna Bush Hager is getting real about a difficult moment in her friendship with Hoda Kotb.

While discussing being "brutally honest" on Wednesday's episode of TODAY with Hoda and Jenna, Bush Hager, 41, teared up as she reflected on a time she got candid with Kotb, 58, after feeling like she didn't know how to be a supportive friend.

"When Hoda's daughter wasn't feeling well, I just wasn't there for her the way I wanted to be. And I didn't know how to be, and I felt terrible about it," Bush Hager shared, beginning to get emotional.

"But I didn't know what to do. So I just said it. I said 'I feel like I haven't been there for you,' " she recalled.

Kotb, whose 3-year-old daughter Hope was hospitalized in February, went on to share that her co-host's honesty meant "everything" to her.

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Related:Hoda Kotb Recalls 'Begging' Nurse to Let Her Give Daughter Hope a Bath During Hospital Stay

"It was, first of all, one of the most beautiful statements," said Kotb, "and it touched me deeply and it meant everything to me that you said that."

Kotb — who is also mom to daughter Haley Joy, 6 — had taken a few weeks off from Today in February while Hope was in the hospital.

Though she has not provided further information about her daughter's diagnosis, she did explain on a previous episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna that the experience was "really scary."

"She's vibrant and brilliant," the mother of two said of Hope, adding that she's "over the moon" to have her little one home.

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