Jenna Bush Hager tried to ask actress Minka Kelly about her love life this week — and it didn’t go over well.
Kelly stopped by “Today with Jenna & Friends” on Tuesday, Nov. 18, to promote her new Netflix movie, “Champagne Problems,” which premiered on Wednesday, Nov. 19. After discussing the film, Bush Hager asked Kelly about her relationship with Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds.
“Speaking about the holidays and love and this romcom, you have a very big love in your life right now. Talk about your relationship — if you feel comfortable,” Bush Hager said, stumbling over her words slightly.
Kelly blinked and looked taken aback by the question. Bush Hager then brought up Kelly’s July Instagram tribute to Reynolds in which she said the musician healed “wounds in me he did not inflict – simply by being himself.”
Kelly looked uncomfortable as Bush Hager repeated the words from her Instagram caption.
“That’s beautiful,” Bush Hager said.
“It is beautiful. I feel very lucky. He’s a really good guy,” Kelly replied.
Bush Hager then laughed nervously and said, “Sounds like you don’t want to talk about it. That’s fine.”
Her guest cohost, Olivia Munn, jumped in to save the day by saying she had a great experience working with Reynolds on an Imagine Dragons music video. Kelly then tied her relationship back to “Champagne Problems.”
“There’s something sort of similar to the movie in the theme of love sort of hits you when you least expect it,” Kelly said.
Minka Kelly.Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Viewers took to the YouTube comments section to react to the awkward exchange.
“Thank you Olivia for helping navigate that really awkward [comment], Jenna doesn’t need to ask that to Minka a very private random prompt about her love life. And then say ‘oh you don’t want to talk about that?’ That is possibly the worst comment an interviewer can say,” one person wrote.
“It’s not the question that was the problem, it was the MANNER in which it was asked. Like give us all the tea. You see Olivia’s reaction as soon as that question is asked. She’s shocked at how straightforward and invasive it was,” another viewer commented.
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Others took Bush Hager’s side.
“I didn’t get why there was such secrecy about her relationship as she posts about it anyways online ! Kinda rude,” one person wrote.
“Minka made it awkward when she could have made it work to align with her movie. Jenna didn’t do anything wrong,” another viewer commented, pointing out that the show “got an OK to show the picture” of Kelly and Reynolds, so the actress likely wasn’t totally blindsided.
Kelly and Reynolds have been dating since 2022. One day after her uncomfortable interview with Bush Hager, Kelly addressed the relationship during an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
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When asked if her boyfriend has read her candid memoir, “Tell Me Everything,” Kelly revealed that Reynolds read it before they even met in person.
“He was like, ‘I wanna read it.’ So, I was like, ‘Well, OK, well, here you go. You’ll either be terrified and run for the hills, or you’ll see the beauty in all of it,’” she recalled, noting that it was “the latter” and brought them “closer.”
“Champagne Problems” is available to stream on Netflix.
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