TODAY host Hoda Kotb has revealed that she’s open to dating Kevin Costner after being told that fans are “shipping” them.
Costner, recently divorced, had reportedly been romantically tied to singer Jewel, which both denied.
Fans Want Kotb And Costner To Date
While appearing on Watch What Happens Live on Tuesday night, Kotb, 59, was told that fans are rooting for her to date Costner, 69.
“How do you feel about viewers ‘shipping’ you and Kevin Costner after he appeared on ‘Today’ last month?” a fan asked Kotb as she sat next to her TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. “And have the two of you connected since?”
Kotb could not help but look stunned by this.
“Wait, what?” she asked.
“The viewers want the two of you together,” host Andy Cohen said in response. Kotb replied, “I have never heard that, not one time.”
“Well, you heard it now, you up to it?” Guthrie exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. “Give the people what they want.”
“Well, if the viewers want it,” Kotb said flirtatiously.
Check out this full exchange in the video below.
Related: Kevin Costner Reveals What He’s Looking For In Next Romantic Partner After Heartbreaking Divorce
Jenna Bush Hager Weighs In
The next morning, Kotb’s co-host Jenna Bush Hager admitted that she was aware that fans were rooting for Kotb and Costner to date.
“I didn’t know you and Kevin were shipping!” Bush Hager said, adding that she “didn’t even know what shipping meant.”
“I actually did know because people were coming up to me on the street, and people were like, ‘You should set up Hoda and Kevin Costner,’” she added. “And I was like, ‘wow, I didn’t know they were flirting behind my back.”
Clips were then played of Kotb and Costner on the set of TODAY last month. Bush Hager jokingly pointed out that Kotb was nervously “rubbing [her] arm” while talking to Costner.
Check out this clip in the video below.
Kotb And Costner’s History
Kotb was previously married to Burzis Kanga from 2005 to 2008. She was then in a longterm relationship with her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman from 2015 to 2022.
Meanwhile, Costner has been married twice. He was first married to Cindy Silva from 1978 until 1994. Their divorce was one of the most expensive splits in Hollywood history, with Silva receiving $80 million in settlements.
Costner later married Christine Baumgartner in 2004. They remained together until they divorced last year. Though their divorce was a difficult one, Costner has said that he’s open to finding love again.
“I had two unique relationships,” Costner told Fox News last month. “A person who wants to be loved, and they want to be, you know … feel like they’re at their very best. And that love helps that and doesn’t hinder it.”
Related: Kevin Costner, 69, Reveals Why He Must ‘Go Forward’ After ‘Crushing’ Divorce
Kotb Is Also Ready For Love
As for Kotb, she’s also ready for love again. Back in May, she said that she has a “lot of buckets that I want someone to fill, like an emotional bucket is fun, a spiritual bucket.”
“There’s so many buckets in life, and I think sometimes if you think about your person, I think I realize in my life that there’s more that I want,” she added, according to US Weekly.
Costner and Kotb would certainly make quite a couple. Only time will tell if they’ll actually make fans’ dreams come true and start dating!
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