• Motto

Tamron Hall Opens Up About the Challenges of Finding Love

4 minute read

Tamron Hall can finally put Steve Harvey‘s — and her mother’s — constant questioning to rest.

On Thursday’s episode of the Steve Harvey show, the former Today show anchor sat down with the host for an on-camera interview that was taped prior to her abrupt Today show exit last week.

To kick off the interview, Harvey, 60, inquired about his 46-year-old friend’s love life.

“Whenever I see Steve, he says something about my clothes, and then you ask me, ‘When are you going to get married?’ ” Hall said with a laugh on Thursday.

“The only person who’s told me more is my mom. You and my mom, I know when I see my mom and I see Steve, I have to start rehearsing. I start going through magazines and cutting out pictures of men. ‘This is my new boyfriend. This is him.’ I’m prepared for you this time,” she said. “Well, not that kind of prepared. I’m not getting married.”

Although Harvey assured the NBC alum that his offers of assistance in setting her up should not be viewed as “an act of desperation,” Hall revealed that she doesn’t need any suggested suitors — because she’s now seeing someone!

“But I have a boyfriend now,” she said to Harvey’s surprise. “Now you have mixed feelings because you didn’t pick him, you haven’t approved of him.”

Though Hall has now found romance — she disclosed that her unnamed beau works in “entertainment” — the road to love hasn’t been easy for the news anchor.

“It’s been tough for you being famous out there on the dating scene,” said Harvey.

But Hall believes it’s more difficult for the men that she’s dated than for herself, as TV and social media can be a constant reminder of someone who works in the public eye.

“You know, I feel it’s tougher for the guys, because if I break up with them, then they can go on and be forced to watch me on TV everyday,” said Hall. “I don’t see them.”

Last April, Hall opened up about to PEOPLE about the death of her older sister Renate. Following years of relationships with abusive men, in 2004 Renate’s body was found brutally beaten, floating face down in the small backyard pool of her home in Houston, Texas – a tragedy Hall says still resonates with her to this day.

“It hasn’t shaped my life, but it’s given me courage I didn’t know I had,” said Hall.

“I’ve been engaged a couple times,” she admitted. “Thank God no one was abusive, but [my sister’s situation] makes me cautious.”

Hall opted to leave NBC News and MSNBC days after learning that she would no longer be hosting Today‘s third hour due to incoming former Fox News star Megyn Kelly, who will be taking over Hall and her former co-anchor Al Roker‘s hourlong slot.

Her departure came as a shock to many, including network executives themselves.

“Tamron is an exceptional journalist, we valued and enjoyed her work at Today and MSNBC and hoped that she would decide to stay,” NBC News said in a statement released Feb. 1. “We are disappointed that she has chosen to leave, but we wish her all the best.”

Hall, meanwhile, said she was “grateful” for her time at the network and also “very excited about the next chapter.”

In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, multiple sources revealed that Hall was both angry and hurt at the network’s decision to replace her slot with Kelly’s, seeing the move as a “demotion.”

“She wasn’t going to settle for sitting on the sidelines,” said one Hall source.

“She basically said thank you, but no thank you,” added the anchor’s good friend, TV writer-producer Mara Brock Akil. “Tamron’s a woman of integrity, and she’s writing her own story.”

Steve Harvey airs weekdays (check local listings).

This article originally appeared on People.com

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com