Bethenny Frankel Calls Out Kelly Rowland for ‘Diva Expectations’ on ‘Today’

As someone who has cohosted Today’s fourth hour with Hoda Kotb, Bethenny Frankelhas seen the cramped backstage quarters that reportedly led Kelly Rowland to bail on her cohosting gig. And Frankel called out the Destiny’s Child alum for her “diva expectations,” saying that it’s an honor just to be selected as cohost.

“I’ve cohosted with Hoda, and I’ve arrived there, and the makeup area that you touch up in is often a drop cloth — like, a black drop cloth — and then your dressing room is the size of a closet, and you’re trying to fit all your people in the clown car,” the Real Housewives of New York City alum told followers in a now-offline TikTok video still circulating on social media.

 

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“And you know what? You’re so excited. You’re so gracious,” she added. “You’re cohosting on The Today Show, an institution in entertainment, a news organization that is not about fancy dressing rooms.”

On Friday, Page Six reported that Rowland walked off Today on Thursday morning sometime between the NBC show’s second hour — when she promoted her new movie, Mea Culpa— and its fourth hour — when she was slated to fill in for Jenna Bush Hager on Today With Hoda & Jenna.

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A source told Page Six Rowland and her team left the studio because they found her dressing room unsatisfactory. In the end, Rita Ora stepped in at the last minute to join Kotb.

In her TikTok video, Frankel said that the privilege of cohosting Today is worth any unglamorous conditions behind the scenes. “The makeup area is completely communal, the food is like, grab a croissant and some plastic and pray for the best, and it’s just not what that’s about,” she said. “And it’s an honor to be there and to sit down with Hoda, and that was not the moment for diva expectations.”

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