Hoda Kotb, Jenna Bush Hager applaud Ina Garten for separating from Jeffrey: He was used to a traditional wife role

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager reacted to Ina Garten confessing that she briefly separated from her husband, Jeffrey Garten, in the 1970s.Kotb, 60, recently did a sit-down interview with Ina, 76, who recalled telling her husband of ten years at the time that she needed to “be on my own for a little while,” which Jeffrey, 77, agreed to.“I felt I said the right thing but it was really scary because i said it to someone I really deeply loved,” Ina — who details the separation in her upcoming memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens” — shared to Kotb.On Wednesday’s “Today with Hoda and Jenna,” Kotb and Bush Hager, 42, commended the Food Network star for putting herself first in her marriage.“It sounds like the root of what happened was he was used to a traditional wife role, and she was coming into her own creating her business,” Kotb said.

“She was pouring all her stuff into it and he was expecting what she was before, which was, ‘dinner’s here, I’ll talk care of the house,’ and all those things.”Kotb went on, “I think it reminded me listening to her that when a couple grows, you have to let the other person grow, too, You hear people say, ‘you are not the girl I married.’ Well, the girl you married is different.”“They kind of reintroduced themselves to each other and now they’ve got this rock solid beautiful love story.”Bush Hager added, “It shows that honesty, being completely transparent with yourself and with somebody else, even if it’s terribly scary.I am sure part of her wanted him to say, ‘No, we got to work this out.

You don’t need to cook.’ But he was like, ‘Okay.'”The former first daughter also said Ina owned her “worth” when she chose to separate from Jeffrey for a time.“She knew that she wanted something bigger than having the dinner on at five,” Bush Hager noted.“She was willing to stand up for herself and maybe lose him in order to make her dreams come true.

Now look at her.A...