Intentional or not, Joe Manganiello’s girlfriend, Caitlin O’Connor, has entered the Today show dressing rooms discourse.
O’Connor, 34, posted various Instagram Stories from the NBC show’s dressing room on Monday, February 26, as Manganiello, 47, appeared on Today to promote his Deal or No Deal Island hosting gig.
In the first image, O’Connor posed for a mirror selfie while holding a dog. In the second photo, O’Connor was smiling at the dog in her arms while Manganiello could be seen on the TV in the background. (O’Connor and Manganiello made their relationship Instagram official earlier this month.)
O’Connor’s inside look at the Today show dressing rooms came days after Kelly Rowland made headlines for walking off the talk show’s set on February 15. Rowland, 43, was initially set to host the fourth hour of Today with Hoda Kotb as a replacement for Jenna Bush Hager, who took the day off. (Rowland had been interviewed by Savannah Guthrie earlier in the show.) However, Rita Ora ultimately joined Kotb, 59 on stage.
Following Rowland’s abrupt exit, various outlets reported that she had left the set due to her disappointment with the Today show dressing rooms.
“After 28 years of knowing her, Kelly Rowland remains one of the kindest, most amiable humans I have ever met and have had the blessing to represent,” Rowland’s rep, Yvette Noel-Schure, said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight on February 20, as the incident continued to make headlines.
That same day, Kotb also addressed her relationship with Rowland on the air.
“I just want to say this: I have great love and admiration for Kelly Rowland,” the TV host told viewers. “I adore her, and I want her to come back on our show, and I want her to host again.”
While appearing on Chicago’s WGN News on February 22 to promote her Netflix movie Mea Culpa, Rowland was asked whether she wanted to explain the Today show debacle.
“No, because I’m so excited and delighted to be here to talk about the movie and nothing else,” she declared. “I love the Today show, love Hoda and that is it.”
Both Kotb and Guthrie, 52, have seemingly come to Rowland’s defense in a way, commenting on the “tiny” dressing rooms in the NBC studio.
“We need a remodel. We need Extreme Makeover: Today Show Dressing Room Edition,” Guthrie told ET on February 21. “We are in a historic studio, 1A. It’s the same studio that has been used for decades. It’s incredible and it’s iconic, but it’s old.”
Kotb added, “If you’ve ever been backstage [on] Broadway and gone to one of those dressing rooms, you’re like in these tiny rooms for months and months. That’s kind of what the Today show is like. You walk around and it’s such a beautiful place, but there’s tiny little spaces.”
