Hoda Kotb Dishes To Jenna Bush Hager About The Steamy Affair She Had With A Police Officer She Met In A Laundromat In Order To Get Over A “Terrible Breakup”: “That is HOT”

Thursday’s (Sept. 21) broadcast of Today With Hoda & Jenna took a steamy turn as the hosts discussed the “terrible” breakups of their youth, and the rebounds that snapped them out of it.

While discussing Sofia Vergara’s recent divorce from actor Joe Manganiello, Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb reflected on what it’s like to date during that “fragile” period after a breakup.

“Well, it looks like Joe already moved on because he was photographed with his new girlfriend,” Kotb noted, before later adding, “I do think, sometimes when you’re weak, you’re in a kind of rundown state, you’re fragile. Then you meet someone and that person is the knight in shining armor.”

The conversation reminded Kotb of a particularly steamy story from her youth that Bush Hager noted reminded her of “a Colleen Hoover book.”

“I think I told you it happened to me, but I had a terrible breakup and I was sitting in the laundromat,” Kotb recalled. “I was upset and I still remember sitting and hugging my knees, just waiting for my laundry to be over. And a police officer walked in and he goes, ‘Are you okay?’ And I go, ‘No, I’m not okay.'”

She continued, “And I started talking to him, and I started dating him.”

The story shocked Bush Hager, who loudly replied, “That was HOT,” eliciting laughs from Kotb and their stage crew.

Even Kotb agreed, saying, “It was hot.”

“What is the mistake there?” Bush Hager continued. “That’s a Colleen Hoover book, girl!”

Kotb went on to explain that, though the relationship didn’t last, she learned a valuable lesson from it: “I realized he was a rescuer, and after a while I didn’t need rescuing,” she said.

She explained that since he met her during a vulnerable period of her life, he kept wanting to help her in a way that she found “irritating,” and recalled feeling at the time, “I’m actually a strong person, you just met me when I wasn’t.”

But Bush Hager was still hung up on their meet-cute. “But he also kind of brought you back to life, whew!” she said. “You need to go back to that laundromat! You never know who will walk in.”

This is just Bush Hager’s latest attempt to get Kotb back out there. She urged her co-host to start “sliding into people’s DMs” during an episode earlier this week.

Today with Jenna and Hoda airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.