Hoda Kotb, 59, candidly opens up about her breast cancer battle and the 'downside' of dealing with it so publicly - as she praises 43-year-old Olivia Munn for speaking out about her own 'shocking' diagnosis story

Hoda Kotb has opened up about the 'downside' of going public with her 2007 breast cancer diagnosis, which led to her having a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

During a candid conversation with her Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager, the 59-year-old praised Olivia Munn for making the 'difficult decision' to share her own breast cancer news on social media this week.

When Jenna, 42, agreed that it must have been 'hard' for the 43-year-old actress to speak out, Hoda reflected on her own experience of publicly revealing her health struggles, admitting that she hadn't ever planned to share the news with the world.

'I think one of the things about being public about something, and many years ago, many, many years ago, when I was diagnosed, I wasn't going to say anything about it and I wanted to forget about it, but someone encouraged me to say something,' she explained.

Hoda Kotb has opened up about the 'downside' of going public with her 2007 breast cancer diagnosis

Olivia Munn revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and has undergone four surgeries in the last 10 months 

Hoda told her Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager that it must have been a 'difficult decision' for Olivia to go public

'The one downside, there are so many upsides, the downside is people look at you with pity and I have to say, for me personally, that's one of the hardest looks to ever get because someone feeling sorry for you, like, "oh poor thing"... and they say one of the worst things you can do as a parent is put pity on your kids.

'But Olivia's point is, "look I'm here, I'm ready to talk about it", and it was such a shocking story,' Hoda added, referring to Olivia's emotional Instagram post, in which she revealed she has undergone four surgeries in the last 10 months.

Jenna agreed with Hoda and added: 'When you are going through such scary things, it's hard because you kind of want to keep it private. Everybody has different opinions.'

Alongside a series of hospital photos, Olivia told her 2.9 million followers that she was diagnosed with Luminal B cancer in both breasts after undergoing genetic testing.

'She had gotten a mammogram, which came back negative, completely negative and it was because she had genetic testing...' Jenna explained, as Hoda continued: 'Yeah, she was all great like, "I'm good for a year".

'And then her doctor said, "we're going to do something where we assess your cancer risk. We're gonna ask you about your family history and when you had your period first and when you had your first child", you know just do the math.

'Eight different little factors, and when they added it all up it turned out that she had a 30-something percentage chance of getting it. She said, "if you had a 37 percent chance of a plane going down, how would you think about it? So go get checked".

'And then she got checked and then she ended up having breast cancer, which was aggressive, but taken care of,' Hoda explained.

'It's such a lesson in advocating for your health and paying attention,' Jenna replied.

Hoda and Jenna recognized that it wouldhave been 'hard' for Olivia to speak out about her health

Olivia told her fans on Instagram that she had spent 'so many days spent in bed I can't even count'

Olivia praised her OBGYN for deciding to calculate her Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score, adding: 'The fact she did saved my life' 

Hoda pictured in 2007, which is the same year she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery

'She did all the things she was supposed to do, that's the weird part, she went to the doctor...' Hoda added, as Jenna claimed: 'She did, and half the women don't even do that.'

Back in October 2020, Hoda revealed she made the difficult decision to go public as she battled breast cancer after a chance encounter with a stranger on an airplane.

During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Hoda said that their brief chat led the journalist to share her cancer diagnosis with her viewers as she sought treatment back in 2007. 

'When I was working at NBC with breast cancer, I was determined to put that deep in my pockets and not share that because I didn't want to be that person,' Hoda said.

Her thinking changed after a stranger on a plane inquired about a compression sleeve she was wearing, leading her to explain that she had cancer.

'But I said to him, "But I hope that’s not how you remember me." And he said, "What’s wrong with you? Having cancer is part of you. It’s like working at NBC or getting married or graduating college. Let me give you some advice and you can go to sleep: don’t hog your journey, it’s not just for you,"' she recounted.

'I sat there in that moment with a complete stranger and realized I had just changed the path of my life. He said, "You can put your stuff deep in your pockets and take it to your grave or you can help someone. Those are your choices, A or B, choose."

'When he said that I was so struck by the fact that I wanted to hide the bad parts of my life and suddenly I felt lifted and lighter and I mentioned it at work when I had kept it a secret, I said it out loud, and all of a sudden I found it really was helping people. It shaped me. It didn’t define me, but you can still help people with that,' Hoda added.