Fans are baffled after an old clip of Hoda Kotb interviewing someone on the morning show in 2010 went viral, with one person describing her questions as “crazy.”
Hoda, who recently celebrated her 60th birthday with her family on August 9, was interviewing food journalist Amy Reiley about her book The Love Diet, along with then-co-host Kathie Lee Gifford, when she asked a rather shocking question.
Instead of asking about the contents of Amy’s book, Hoda decided to question her directly about her book’s co-author, Juan-Carlos Cruz, who was at the time accused of plotting to murder his wife, Jennifer Campbell.
Hoda refused to dance around the subject, diving right in and saying, “We want to get one piece of the story out of the way before we get started, there’s a co-author, Juan-Carlos Cruz, who’s accused of a murder plot with his wife. There’s a plea deal going on today, what’s the statistic? What’s going on there?”
Amy seemed taken aback by Hoda’s blunt question, but calmly replied, “Um, I know there’s a hearing in a few hours today and there’s supposedly going to be a settlement, that’s pretty much all I know.”
Fans are left baffled today after an old clip of Hoda Kotb interviewing Amy Reiley along with Kathie Lee Gifford in 2010 resurfaced
Author Amy looked bewildered when Hoda started the segment and asked her about her co-author who was accused of committing murder for a hitman.
Amy continued: ‘Juan-Carlos and I communicate through letters. He can’t talk to me about his case.
‘All I really know is that this is a man who is incredibly passionate about cooking for better health and sharing his passion with other people. That’s why we did The Love Diet together.’
Kathie interrupted her and said, “But you’re friends and you wish him the best?” Amy replied, “Yeah, and I promised myself I wouldn’t cry today, so…”
Hoda quickly moved on from the segment when she responded, “No you’re not, we’re cooking! So what are we making?” to which Amy responded, “So we’re making a lasagna for black truffle lovers…”
The clip was posted on X on Sunday with the text: ‘I can try you a thousand times and you will never guess the first question they ask about this book’. The clip has now been viewed 1.3 million times.
Many people were quick to respond to Hoda’s post and sober questions. One person wrote, “Not the ideal way to start that part…” while another said, “I feel so sorry for this woman.”
A third person claimed: ‘Oh boy Hoda treated her really dirty there!’, while a fourth X user said: ‘What the f*** who even starts a conversation like that.’
“Hoda is crazy oh my god!!,” someone else commented, while yet another added, “It’s hilarious then horrifying.”
Amy responded that Juan-Carlos Cruz is “a man who is very, very passionate about cooking for better health”
Juan-Carlos was sentenced to nine years in prison in December 2010 for trying to hire two homeless men to kill his wife
Someone else joked, “Hoda was only there for TAAAAAA and nothing else,” while another noted, “I get the feeling they ONLY locked her in here to ask about an ongoing lawsuit with her co-author.”
Someone else claimed: “Holy shit this is unbelievable,” while another admitted it left him “speechless.”
On December 13, 2010, Juan-Carlos was sentenced to nine years in prison for attempting to hire two homeless men to murder his wife.
The chef, then known as the Calorie Commando, confessed to hiring the men to strangle his attorney Jennifer.
He offered them $500 each and gave them details of her movements in the Los Angeles area.
The plan failed when the would-be killers went to the police.
The men later secretly filmed Juan-Carlos, who had his own show on the Food Network television channel, and offered them money to commit the crime.