Willie Geist has officially been crowned “morning TV’s boyfriend” after an interaction between him and Heather McMahan went viral.
The Sunday TODAY host reluctantly accepted the title that Jenna Bush Hager bestowed upon him while he guest co-hosted TODAY with Jenna & Friends on March 4.
“Pedro Pascal is known as the internet’s boyfriend,” Jenna explained to Willie. “He’s cool, he’s handsome. Everybody, you know, loves him. Well, our team has now pegged you as ‘morning TV’s boyfriend.'”
Willie sighed, looking down before saying, “It makes me very uncomfortable.”
“I don’t even quite know what it means to be ‘morning TV’s boyfriend,'” he expressed. “I am on morning TV a lot, very early in the morning, later in the morning in (today’s) case, Sundays. I’m on from like six to noon most days so I guess I do occupy the morning.”
“I guess it’s an honor to be in the company of Pedro Pascal, if that’s what that means,” he continued, then adding, “I don’t know what that means.”
Jenna’s title for Willie stemmed from last week, when McMahan guest co-hosted on TODAY with Jenna & Friends. In a now-viral video, McMahan and Willie are seen sharing a behind-the-scenes moment, as the comedian said to Willie, “You look good in blue.”
“Are we like an item?” Willie joked.
“Yeah, we kind of are,” McMahan teased back.
Jenna then jutted in, saying that she heard from Willie’s wife Christina and that she’s OK with it, to which Willie added that his wife “loves” McMahan.
“Jeff was okay with it too,” McMahan said of her husband. “He was like, ‘If anybody, it’s Willie.'”
“Christina was like, on board … I was surprised at the lack of resistance I got from my wife. She was like, ‘Great, she’s awesome. She’s great,'” Willie added.
While co-hosting the March 4 episode of TODAY with Jenna & Friends, Willie noted that he and McMahan “had a moment” and how quiet she got around him.
Jenna agreed, adding “Heather, who is really one of the wildest, most outgoing humans that I know, she saw you and she just shriveled up inside.”
She then read some comments about Willie from the viral video, including one that read, “Honestly, who doesn’t have a crush on Willie?! Also Heather and Jenna are a match made in heaven!!”
Jenna also read Christina’s comment about the video: “HA! Love you, (Heather McMahan)! I’m confident out marriages can survive this! It’s not the first time I’ve witnessed the WG phenomenon!”
“Wow!” Willie said in response to his wife’s comment. “Alright, I’m glad she got the last word on that!”
Willie said that he didn’t realize he was being recorded in the now-viral video, and was shocked when he got home and his wife had already seen the interaction.
