Hoda Kotb And Jenna Bush Hager Defend Kelly Rowland After Her Cannes Red Carpet Dispute Went Viral: “She Handles Herself With Grace”

After Kelly Rowland and various actresses recently went viral for getting into disputes on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet, Today‘s Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager unpacked the beef with E! News host Justin Sylvester.

“We are very upset the videos we’re seeing out of Cannes. We need you to put some perspective here and tell us what’s going on,” Kotb told Sylvester.

Sylvester, who is a regular entertainment correspondent on Today With Hoda & Jenna, explained, “Apparently, there’s a security guard in Cannes who Cannes-not keep her hands to herself.” He then shared the viral video that showed Rowland calmly walking the red carpet until the security guard began rushing her on multiple occasions, prompting the Destiny’s Child singer to allegedly tell her, “Don’t talk to me like that.”

Sylvester also shared other videos that went viral from that week that appeared to show the same security guard rushing actress Massiel Taveras and K-Pop star YoonA up the red carpet stairs. In one heated moment, Taveras was seen shoving the security guard back during their dispute.

After Kotb noted how “weird” the security guard’s behavior was, Bush Hager added that they “don’t know” what the guard was trying to accomplish.

“We also just want to say Kelly Rowland is our girl,” Bush Hager said.

O vídeo completo da Kelly Rowland tretando em Cannes. Pelo visto os seguranças tavam apressando ela, mas assim, de uma forma bem incisiva né, até grosseira.

E a mulher encostou nela, e se tem uma coisa q frita americano é vc encostar neles sem motivo! pic.twitter.com/IR0AvxoDYE

— Samir Duarte (@eusousamir) May 22, 2024

Kotb agreed. “Yes, by the way, I felt like people were piling on her and we know that she handles herself with grace and with class,” she said.

In a statement shared after the moment went viral, Rowland maintained, “I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries, and that is it. There were other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me, and they didn’t get that scolding, or pushed off, or told to get off. I stood my ground, and she felt like she had to stand hers. But I stood my ground.”

As for that security guard, Sylvester joked that he reached out to the Dallas Cowboys on her behalf. “If she wants to be on the defensive line and tackle somebody we can get her a job that’s not a body guard at the Cannes Film Festival, if you know what I mean,” he said.

This isn’t the first time the Today co-hosts have stood up for the Mea Culpa actress. Rowland recently made headlines after rumors spread that she walked off the Today With Hoda & Jenna set because she was allegedly unhappy with the dressing rooms backstage. Her sudden exit left Kotb without a co-host at the last minute as Rowland was set to guest star and fill in for Bush Hager.

Kotb playfully addressed the rumors during a later broadcast where she and Bush Hager maintained that the singer was still always welcome back on the show.

“I have great love and admiration for Kelly Rowland, I adore her, I want her to come back on our show and I want her to host again,” Kotb said. “She can share my dressing room. We’ll be in it together.”

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