Kathie Lee Gifford makes surprise appearance on Today in honor of Hoda Kotbs last day

Today, Kathie Lee Gifford is sending off her old pal.During Hoda Kotb’s last episode of “Today with Hoda & Jenna” on Friday, the journalist got a surprise visit from her former co-host.At first, Gifford, 71, appeared in a video message from her home in Tennessee under the pretense that she couldn’t make it in-person.Shortly after the clip ended, the author appeared onstage to say a proper goodbye as Kotb, 60, sat with her jaw dropped.“I love you so much that I was thinking to myself, ‘I sure hope Kath comes,'” the anchor admitted to Gifford.

“I’m so happy that you’re here.”“I have a message for you,” the actress said before singing “The Best Is Yet to Come.”Kotb and Gifford hosted “Today with Kathie Lee & Hoda” from 2008 until Gifford’s departure in 2019.Gifford was replaced by Jenna Bush Hager, who has remained Kotb’s co-host since.Gifford recalled how she and Kotb bonded before they teamed up for the fourth hour show.“I fell in love with Hoda at lunch,” she said about their first introduction.

As it turns out, Gifford only signed on to the show for a year — but she quickly had a change of heart.“My problem is I fall in love, and I fell in love with Hoda,” she revealed.“And I said, ‘I don’t want to leave her.’ Every time I was with Hoda, the one thing I had in common with you and with Regis (Philbin) — two very, very different people — I look forward every single day to being with you both.”“I’ve always said she’s sunshine in a bottle, isn’t she, everybody?” added Gifford.And while working closely together for 11 years, Gifford found out just the type of person Kotb really is.“You proved to me that you’re a fearless person,” she told the author.

“You are, because she didn’t do what she does now at the beginning.She was world-renowned journalist, but she didn’t trust her performing instincts, and that wasn’t going to work with me.”As Gifford, Kotb and Jenna Bush Hage...