Hoda Kotb’s youngest daughter, Hope, is making great strides after her health scare last year.
“We’re in a place where Hope is thriving. She is improving, we’re watching her, and I think that as time goes on, we’ll have a better handle on it, but we’re already seeing great differences,” Kotb, 60, told People in her cover story published on Wednesday, October 9. “We have really excellent care, I have people who are helping us out. I feel like she is finding steady footing.”
The Today coanchor shares daughters Hope, 5, and Haley, 7, with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman. Kotb recently moved her family out of New York City to the suburbs, noting that “being barefoot and on grass” has been a big positive for her children.
Hope was hospitalized in February 2023, and Kotb skipped two weeks of Today broadcasts to be by her daughter’s side. Kotb hasn’t specified the exact details of Hope’s illness but noted on an NBC broadcast that her child spent multiple days in the ICU.
“Hoda had been terrified for Hope the last couple of weeks,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2023. “Hoda has dropped everything and focused on being there for her youngest — by her hospital bed — and taking care of anything she could need. Hope is better now and recovering at home.”
Kotb recently announced she’ll be leaving Today, which she’s been on since 2008, and her daughters were a large part of her decision. She told People that she always felt guilty when it came to balancing her work and home life.
“I’ve had yearnings, and you know when something’s pulling you? It’s like you either go toward it or you shove it down and say, ‘Nope, this is the way. I’m going to stay here because it’s safe,’” Kotb said. “It does make more sense to stay at NBC. I’m financially secure and I would have job security. I mean, why would you ever not do that? But I’ve been watching my kids and I was thinking to myself, I wonder what I’m missing?”
Kotb will remain on Today through the end of the year, a choice she came to after turning 60.
“I knew that I wanted this decade to be different. I looked at my time like a pie,” Kotb told the outlet. “I was like, ‘This is how much time I get, and now what am I going to do with it and how am I going to carve it up?’ And I wanted it to be filled with more of them.”
She continued, “There’s the guilt you carry because you can’t be 100 percent at work and 100 percent at home. Something has to give if you want excellence. If you’re going to be excellent at work, something has to give at home. And if you want to be excellent at home, I mean excellent and do all the things, something has to give at work. It can’t be equal.”
