Jenna Bush Hager called out Al Roker after he greeted her with a nickname she believed crossed a line. The awkward exchange happened after Bush Hager appeared on the “Today” show wearing red.

She revisited the moment during Thursday’s broadcast of “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle.” Sheinelle Jones backed up Bush Hager’s account and recalled how the other women reacted when Roker spoke.

“Earlier this week when I was wearing red … remember this? And I walked onto the set and Al goes, ‘Hey, Big Red!’” Bush Hager said, referring to Tuesday’s episode of the “Today” show.

According to Jones, the reaction from their fellow hosts was immediate. “And all the girls were like, ‘No, no! Don’t say that!’” she confirmed while mimicking how the group responded.

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Bush Hager explained why Roker’s spontaneous nickname did not land as intended. “You can’t call somebody, a woman, ‘big!’” she insisted during the discussion.

Jones offered an alternative that she believed would have avoided the problem. She said Roker should have called Bush Hager “Skinny Red!” instead of using the nickname that caused the commotion.

Savannah Guthrie also reacted with disbelief, according to Jones. She recalled the “Today” co-host saying, “Oh my God, I can’t believe you said that,” after hearing Roker’s greeting.

Roker apparently did not immediately understand why the women objected. He turned to Jones and asked, “What did I do?” as the other hosts continued reacting to his choice of words.

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Jones said she attempted to explain the issue directly to him. “And I said, ‘You can’t say anything that takes up space!’” she told Bush Hager during Thursday’s broadcast.

Roker then tried to produce other versions of the nickname in an effort to defuse the situation. One of his alternatives was “Tall Red,” but Bush Hager still was not persuaded.

Although Bush Hager joked about the incident while discussing it with Jones, her objection carried personal context. The television host has previously spoken openly about struggling with body image issues.

Bush Hager said those feelings began when she was 9 years old. Her past comments described how early concerns about her body appeared and how her perspective eventually changed.

“I no longer think that way, and I haven’t for quite some time,” she said in 2023. She credited having children and experiencing changes to her body with helping to reset the way she viewed herself.

Bush Hager shares three children with her husband, Henry Hager. Their children are Mila, 13, Poppy, 11, and Hal, 7.

“I think having children, and your body changing in that way, is such a good reset where you realize, ‘Wow, I’ve been doing this incredible thing, and my body is so much more than a vessel to be made fun of, to be worrying about.'”

Her reflections also included the discovery of an old journal during Christmas break. What she found gave her a striking comparison between her own childhood and the age of her eldest daughter.

“I found a journal over Christmas break where in fourth grade my New Year’s resolution was to lose 5 lbs. — my daughter, my eldest, is now in fourth grade, and she seems so young.”

The journal entry showed that Bush Hager was already thinking about losing weight while she was in fourth grade. Seeing her daughter at that same stage of childhood emphasized to her just how young she had been.

Against that history, Roker’s “Big Red” greeting quickly became more than a casual nickname among the hosts. Bush Hager made her boundary clear, while Jones reconstructed the surprised reactions and Roker’s unsuccessful attempts to find a better alternative.