Hoda Kotb left the TODAY show after nearly 20 years on the air. She announced her decision in September 2024, explaining the reason for her exit. “A new decade of my life lies ahead, and now, my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie.,” she said.
Over the years, it was clear that Hoda prioritized her children above her career. However, she was able to balance both with grace.
“Sometimes I wonder like, ‘How did this happened? How did I get this?’” Hoda said of becoming a parent to E News. “I used to feel almost undeserving of it. But I don’t anymore. Something happened within me where I was like, ‘You know what, I’m worthy of these children, I’m worthy of myself. I’m enough just as I am. I will nurture and love these little girls, as long as God lets me have them for as long as I’ll be here.’”
And she’s very much open to adopting another child to expand her brood! Or at least she was toying with the idea in 2020, while she was still engaged to her boyfriend of 9 years, financier Joel Schiffman. “We wondered, you know, would our family be better with another child? Do we have enough love, do we have enough time, you know, will we be a better family unit?” she recalled to ET. “And the answer to all those questions seems to be ‘yes, we would be.’ But you can’t control how life works,” she added. “It’s in God’s hands, it’s not in mine, so if it’s meant to be, we’re happy ’cause, you know, we have room and we have love.”
Sadly, Hoda announced she and Joel broke off their engagement in January 2022. “We decided that we are better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple, so we decided that we are going to start this new year on our new path as loving parents to our adorably delightful children and as friends,” Hoda said on the third hour of Today. It remains to be seen if Hoda’s two daughters will still end up with another sibling, but drama did rock the family in February of 2023 when Hoda disappeared from the Today Show, later to reveal that her youngest daughter Hope had been hospitalized. She’s since been brought home and is recovering.
Let’s meet Hoda’s two girls, below!
Hayley Joy
In February 2017, at the age of 52, Hoda told her Today family that she welcomed her first child, Hayley Joy Kotb. “She’s a Valentine’s baby. She is the love of my life,” Hoda said on the show at the time. “I didn’t know my heart could feel like this. This is a moment in my life that I never thought would happen, and here it is, happening to me.”
Hoda, who was previously married to Burzis Kanga from 2005 to 2007, also celebrated the news on her Instagram. “And then my soul saw you and it kind of went, ‘Oh there you are. I’ve been looking for you,’” read the inspirational message.
Hope
The TODAY show anchor revealed to her co-hosts on the April 16, 2019 episode of the morning show that she adopted a baby again, another little girl named Hope Catherine Kotb. Hoda went on to talk about the sweet moment Hayley found out that she was a big sister. “We had Hayley downstairs, and Joel and I were like, ‘Wait; we have a present!’ So we went upstairs, and came down holding her. And we have been telling her ‘baby Hope is coming.’ She literally walked up to her, looked up at her, and she goes, ‘Hope.’ It was like one of those moments,” Hoda explained.
She also explained how she chose the moniker, claiming she hoped, prayed, and dreamed about having another child. How sweet! And check out how big Hoda’s two girls have grown on her most recent Instagram posts!
In March of 2023, news broke that Hoda had disappeared from The Today Show over a “family health issue.” It was later revealed that her two week leave of absence came about because Hope had been hospitalized. By March 6, her 3-year-old was home. “[Hope’s] vibrant and brilliant. She’s home,” she said in part on the show. “I’m over the moon that she’s home, and I can’t believe how amazing people are.” On June 6, she took to Instagram to share her daughter’s first pic since the ordeal.
