Well, this is uncomfortable! Just hours before Kathie Lee Gifford tearfully announced she’s leaving the Today show after 11 years at NBC next spring, Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo awkwardly slammed KLG and her co-host Hoda Kotb for a misleading headline published on the morning show’s website on Monday, Dec. 10.

While recently speaking to Jada Pinkett Smith on the star’s Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk, Ellen, 49, candidly opened up about what it’s like raising three biracial children. She also revealed in the interview that she hasn’t spoken to her Grey’s co-star Patrick Dempsey since 2015 — and that’s the angle Today chose to focus on for their article’s headline.

So when NBC later promoted the story’s link via the @KLGAndHoda Twitter account with the caption, “@EllenPompeo and @PatrickDempsey haven’t spoken since he left Grey’s Anatomy,” Ellen wasn’t pleased. “Hey, here’s a suggestion!! Maybe all of you over there lay off the booze and pay attention to the real conversation that took place?” the actress commented.

Ellen Pompeo Patrick Dempsey
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After recently sitting down with Jada, Ellen tweeted, “I was humbled when @jadapsmith asked me to come to have a discussion about race. I by no means walk in anyone else’s shoes only my own. I was open and honest about my experience and come from a place of love with no fear about having difficult discussions. Thank you to the whole family.”

During their chat, Ellen — who shares kids Stella Luna, 9, Sienna May, 4, and Eli, 1, with husband Chris Ivery — revealed to Jada that one of her daughter’s friends once didn’t believe she was Stella’s mother because they have different skin colors. “My challenge with raising brown children is, how much do you say to them and how much do you not say to them? A couple of weeks ago I had some friends over to the house, little girls of color and the little girl came in and I introduced myself and I said, ‘I’m Stella’s mom,’ and she looked at me and she was, like, almost scared, and then she went right to Stella and she said, ‘That’s your mom? I thought that was your mom,” she said, explaining that the little girl was referring to her kids’ nanny.

“The little baby looked like she was scared of me. That just breaks my heart. That’s why that experience of being in my house and meeting me was good for her, to see that all white people aren’t what you think,” Ellen continued.

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