Ally Love and Hoda Kotb. Getty Images (2)
Peloton’s Ally Love couldn’t be happier to look up to her Today colleague Hoda Kotb.
“When the cameras are off, she’s just as real [as she is on TV],” Love exclusively told Us Weekly at the 2024 New York City Ballet Spring Gala at Lincoln Center on Thursday, May 2. “We’ve been out to events and people will see her on the street and she’s just as honest and open and I think it’s refreshing because you never know if it’s real or not.”
Love told Us watching Kotb, 59, behind the scenes of the NBC morning show “opens my eyes to say, ‘This is how it should be,’” adding, “You notice some celebrities that will be, like, a little cold or a little secluded in public and she’s not like that. And it seems to go over way better with her fans or people that are part of the Today community.”
She continued: “It’s a good model of behavior. I’ve learned that from her and I didn’t recognize it until now. She’s been doing it for so long, I thought she’d be over it.”
Hoda Kotb has often gushed about how her loved ones have defined her life — especially her daughters, Haley and Hope. The Today anchor became a mother when she adopted her little ones in 2017 and 2019, respectively, with her then-partner, Joel Schiffman. The former couple got engaged after six years of dating in 2019 […]
Kotb joined NBC News as a Dateline correspondent in 1998, 10 years after which she became the cohost of the fourth hour of Today alongside Kathie Lee Gifford. Kotb was promoted to be Savannah Guthrie’s cohost for the show’s first two hours in 2018 and has cohosted Today With Hoda & Jenna with Jenna Bush Hager since 2019.
Love, for her part, became a Today contributor in May 2023. “It has outperformed my expectations,” she said of getting to work on the long-running series. “I came in really excited. It was a dream job. I mean, I’m already working my dream job at Peloton, and then to get an additional role on the Today show was something that came unexpectedly early in my career. I’m grateful for it.”
Hoda Kotb and Ally Love on ‘Today.’ Nathan Congleton/NBC
Since joining the show’s group of “absolutely amazing people,” Love said she’s grown close to both Kotb and third hour of Today cohost Sheinelle Jones. “Before I started I asked them to go to lunch and the one thing they told me, the rule they have is that there’s no woman-on-woman crime” she explained. “I was just like, ‘What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘Usually, you know, when you get in, it’s what everybody’s vying for. No, it’s like no woman-on-woman crime and we got each other’s back and we support each other.’”
According to Love, being in a supportive environment is really “how it is” at Today. “Then there will be moments when I am standing in the hallway and I’m just like, ‘What?’” she added. “I remember this one moment. I’m standing with my boss Libby [Leist] and Carson Daly walks out. We hadn’t worked together yet, but he’s seen me on the show and so he goes to Libby, ‘Ally Love, she’s the best.’ That was so nice to hear.”
Ally Love during ‘Today’ on Monday, April 29, 2024. Nathan Congleton/NBC
Love appeared on Today earlier this week to share her go-to tips and products to achieve a stress-free spring season. Kotb was also present for the Monday, April 29, episodes of Today, though she and cohosts Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Daly, 50, were absent on Friday, May 3, to take an early weekend.
With reporting by Travis Cronin
