Let's Talk About It

When it comes to her daytime talk show and her life off-camera, Tamron Hall has the same motto: “Let’s talk about it.” 

Over the course of a nearly 30-year career, Hall has never shied away from difficult conversations. When she left NBC’s “Today” show in 2017, she was frank about her controversial exit: it had been painful. Her most candid moment came two years later with a much more personal reveal: in March 2019, she announced that, not only had she married beau Steven Greener, but she was also 32 weeks pregnant with their first child. Hall later explained that she waited to disclose the news, because, at 48 years old, her pregnancy was considered high-risk, and she had been terrified of losing the baby. She shared the birth of their son Moses just over a month later.

About four months after welcoming Moses, she made a much-anticipated return to daytime television with the launch of her weekday series, “The Tamron Hall Show.” The combination of a newborn and a new five-day week show, “was a life grenade,” says Hall. “It was an explosion of everything. They were separate but both were productions, things that I was invested in building and caring for. The show did feel like a baby.” 

She succeeded in pulling off, not just the first year of motherhood, but a well-received first season of her show, tackling the responsibilities of both roles by taking things one week at a time. A key step: implementing a wardrobe practice she picked up from her father. “I’ve been in morning television for over 25 years,” she explains. “When you wake up at 4:30 a.m., you learn to lay out your clothes. That’s something my father instilled in me. He was in the military for 30 years and he was adamant about picking out everything you’re going to wear for the week on Sunday night.  He said, ‘I don’t care if the weather changes and you planned to have a white sundress on and it’s raining mud — you’re still going to wear that white sundress.’ His point was that allows you to focus on bigger things. Even now, we map out my wardrobe for the entire week, down to the Spanx, because that allows me time to process unknown variables that creep up, because they do. The biggest thing is I try to prepare myself for is the unknown variable because that is what can derail you.” 

Nothing threw anyone for a bigger loop than the 2020 pandemic. For Hall, it meant temporarily hosting the second season of her show from her New York City home, which brought an entirely new set of challenges. “The extra time with my baby and my husband was phenomenal,” she recalls. “After an intense interview or juggling four or five shows a day from my home — which we were doing at one point — I could run upstairs and hug my kid. So that was a joy. But there came a point where I was taping and I could hear Moses and felt compelled to help. Or I’d start to think about his lunch in the middle of an interview because I was there. It became a distraction because to do the show that I do, to focus on my guest for that period of time, I have to give them all of my attention, all of my energy.” 

The difficulties of the pandemic brought her show’s staff, who Hall considers a second family, even closer. They’ve been invaluable, Hall says, in imparting parenting advice. “The best of what I’ve learned as a parent, I’ve learned from colleagues — from the small things to the big things. Time management and making sure that even if I have just 30 minutes to lock eyes with [Moses] between shows, to have that intimate connection. That’s something I’ve learned from many of my staffers.”

After returning to the studio for the second season, “The Tamron Hall Show” wowed with impressively tough-to-land exclusive interviews that included the first sit-down with former Jacksonville mayor and Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and his wife, R. Jai, following the scandal that landed him in the national spotlight after losing his run for office. On the show, Gillum came out as bisexual. Former “Vanderpump Rules” cast member Stassi Schroeder picked Hall to address, for the first time, past racist behavior that had effectively ended her job, and reality star Tamar Braxton spoke to Hall in her first interview following a suicide attempt and allegations of domestic abuse. In perhaps Hall’s most captivating interview yet, entertainer Billy Porter shared a secret he had been carrying for 14 years: he is HIV positive. 

“I try to talk to the person, not the headline,” says Hall. “These are tough conversations. They’re not easy. But all of us, especially now more than ever, recognize space and grace. Because we’re all going through different things and different challenges, and we recognize that humanity has to exist.”

Guests seem to implicitly trust her with sensitive subjects, perhaps because Hall has been so forthright about her own difficult moments, like the 2004 death of her sister, Renate, a victim of domestic violence whose murder remains unsolved. Says Hall, “When I shared my sister’s story for the first time, I know the feeling they had. I know the hesitation, but I also know the relief and release.” 

Hall also credits much of her success to the example her parents set while raising her in Luling, Texas. “Empathy is taught,” she believes. “My mother wasn’t wealthy; my father was in the military. There were no business skills passed down but there were life skills that ultimately turned into rewarding things with this daytime talk show. I wouldn’t be here without that skill of compassion from an open-armed home.”

As she reached her mid-40’s, however, Hall admits she was growing increasingly closed off in her personal life. It was her departure from “Today” that allowed her to finally let her guard down — and let Greener in. The music executive, she has said, had quietly shown interest in her for years before she gave him a chance. They finally began dating in 2017. Looking back, she says, “I think I was scared about another failed relationship. You get older and you think, ‘I can enjoy life without a significant other.’ And you can! But I put up more walls than I thought existed. They were removed in some ways when I lost the job. It forced a vulnerability I needed but wasn’t always ready for. But, she adds, ‘you don’t have to lose your job to find that openness!’”

With a third season set to launch in September (the nationally syndicated show airs in Boca Raton at 10 a.m. on WPBF-25) and a husband and growing toddler, Hall has a full plate. And believe it or not, she’s taken on even more. Her first work of fiction, “As the Wicked Watch: The First Jordan Manning Novel,” will be released in October. Inspired by a few of the stories she’s covered hosting six seasons of “Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall" on Investigation Discovery, the protagonist is a “forensic scientist turned journalist,” says Hall. “She wears her feelings on her sleeve and loves a good glass of wine. She receives a call about a missing girl in Chicago and becomes obsessed with solving the case. She is somebody you have a good time with and someone you don’t want to be on her bad side.” 

Through her accomplishments Hall hopes to show her son the rewards of hard work, determination and multi-tasking. “For women especially,” she notes, “to have our children watch us manage our lives, whatever we’re doing, it can’t be a burden. It’s something to celebrate. I’m rewarded knowing my son sees me juggle it. Whether you work in the home or outside, the appreciation comes from seeing all we’re doing for them.” O