Who is Hoda Kotb’s best friend Karen, is she a new Today Show co-host? Sat 16 April 2022 11:21 Helen Williams
William Harris NBC’s Today show has been supplying everyone with their dose of morning news since 1952. The show features many familiar faces as co-hosts such as Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Jenna Bush Hager and more. Hoda Kotb has been a long-standing co-anchor on Today and a part of the NBC News family since 1998.
Viewers are so used to seeing Hoda Kotb each morning that even if she takes a vacation, fans are asking of her whereabouts. In 2022, Hoda introduced Today viewers to her best friend, Karen Swensen, so let’s find out more about their friendship and who Karen is…
Hoda Kotb brings best friend onto the Today Show
Today Show viewers got to meet Hoda Kotb’s best friend, Karen Swensen, during the Today Show in 2022.
Hoda and Karen co-hosted the show and the pair introduced a new series on the show named Changing Chapters.
Hoda said: “Karen has gracefully navigated a great deal of change throughout her life and now she wants to share the inspiring stories of others who are doing the exact same thing“.
Who is Karen Swensen?
Karen Swensen (Karen Ronquillo) is a former news anchor at Louisiana’s WWL-TV.
She has a daughter named Catherine Grace and can be found on Instagram @karenswensen with over 6.5K followers.
Karen was clearly a natural when she co-presented the news with Hoda in April 2022 but she’s left the role of reporting behind and is now the founder of Life’s About To Change.
Karen and Hoda’s friendship explored
Hoda Kotb and Karen Swensen have been friends for decades. The two used to work together at WWL-TV and first met in 1994 as per Hello! Magazine.
Hoda reportedly named her daughter, Hope Catherine Kotb, after Karen’s daughter, Catherine.
Speaking of her friend’s hardships in life on The Today Show, Hoda said that Karen had “gracefully” handled the things that life had thrown at her. Karen tragically lost her husband, John Ronquillo, to cancer. He was a veteran and a New Orleans police officer.
She writes that in her life she’s dealt with infertility, cancer batlles and windowhood.
Karen retired from WWL-TV and writes on her website that her daughter is her “everything“.
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