Hoda Kotb's Ups and Downs: Broken Engagement, 'Today' Exit and More
Hoda Kotb has shared many life milestones — both triumphant and difficult — with TV audiences for years.
Kotb notably missed several episodes of the Today show in early 2023. Her cohosts Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones announced that March that her absence was due to a “family health matter,” which Kotb later revealed involved her youngest daughter, Hope.
“[Hope] was in the ICU for a few days and in the hospital for a little more than a week,” Kotb shared during a March 2023 episode of Today. “I’m so grateful she’s home. … I was waiting for that day to come. And we are watching her closely. I’m just so happy.”
Kotb, who left Today in January 2025, coparents Hope and her eldest daughter, Haley, with her ex-fiancé, Joel Schiffman, They called it quits after eight years together in January 2022. At the time of Hope’s health scare, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that Schiffman had “been by their side.”
The insider added: “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.”
Keep scrolling to see Kotb’s ups and downs through the years:
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"I was telling her that I was married once before and I met my husband on Valentine's Day, and I got the divorce papers on Valentine's Day and it was Valentine's Day," Kotb said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2018.
"We go out to the set. It's all decorated with flowers and hearts, and I go, 'Good morning! Happy Valentine's Day!' And [Kathie Lee] looks at me and she goes, 'Not for you!'" Kotb was shocked at her costar’s gall. “I go, 'What are you doing?' But I remember that grenade fell right on the table. I didn't know what to do. I was so new, I didn't know what to say. I said, 'That was makeup room talk. That wasn't for out here, because we're happy out here.’”
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“I was in my room, and I just sobbed. I thought, ‘Well, that’s that, isn’t it?’ Like, you almost blame yourself. ‘Why didn’t I do this? Why didn’t I do that?’” she shared. “So I just pushed it away, because the reality seemed impossible to bear. How do you survive knowing you can’t have what you desire and what you feel like you actually physically need?”
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"Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we're better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple, so we decided we are going to start this new year ... on our new path as loving parents to our adorable, delightful children, and as friends," she shared at the time.
Two months later, Kotb exclusively told Us that coparenting was going well. “He sees the kids,” she shared in April 2022. “He takes them to school some, and he sees them on weekends. We’ve got a really nice, easy situation. … We make sure the kids get plenty of him and plenty of me.”
When asked whether she and Schiffman remained “close friends,” Kotb replied, “Yeah, we are.”
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“I haven’t really thought about who I would see myself with, but I do have to say something. My sister even said and asked me at one point, ‘Are (you) afraid to be by yourself?’” she recalled. “And I said to her, ‘I’m not going to be by myself.’ And I don’t know why I said it so clearly, but I actually knew that my heart is open. I have an open heart.”
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In addition to thanking the doctors and nurses who “stood by [Hope] all the way,” Kotb shared a sweet moment she had with Hope amid her recovery. “The other day ... she had in her hand two little confetti stars, and she said, 'I got two, Mom. One for me and one for you,’” Kotb recalled. “And I thought to myself, ‘Even when she's not feeling good, she's still giving everything away.’”
One year later, Kotb looked back on the scary time in an interview with People but did not give specifics about Hope’s condition. “Any parent who’s been through a scary thing with their child understands. It’s like you just can’t believe that your child’s sick,” she said in March 2024. “You can’t believe that there’s nothing you can do. You can’t believe that no matter what you do, you can’t will it away or protect her, or all the things that we’re supposed to be doing as parents. And it’s a position I’ve never found myself in.”
She went on to note that she doesn’t want Hope to be defined by her health issues. “It’s really tricky, because I don’t want Hope to get labeled,” she explained at the time. “She’s a kid who is so vibrant, and most days everything is totally fine. I don’t want people to look at her differently.”
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She continued: “That has been tabled beautifully, like, nothing funky, all good. He’s very cute, by the way, extremely handsome. I’ll show you a picture after, but [things are] tabled for now.”
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“Everything changed like that. I have a whole new town and a whole new school and all the new things,” Kotb said of the move during a September 2024 episode of Hoda & Jenna. “We went for our first day of school, I carried a coffee and I had sneakers [on], and I walked my kids to school like normal people. It was awesome.”
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Kotb noted that she came to the decision shortly after celebrating with special 60th birthday episodes one month prior. “I remembered standing outside, looking at this beautiful bunch of people with all these gorgeous signs, and I thought, ‘This is what the top of the wave feels like for me,’ and I thought, ‘It can’t get better.’ And [I] decided this is [the] right time for me to, kind of, move on,” she said.
Her kids also played a big role in her decision to step down from the show. “I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking they deserve a bigger piece of my time, the pie that I have. I feel like we only have a finite amount of time,” she noted. “And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world.”
Despite leaving Today, Kotb assured fans she would remain a part of the NBC family in the future.
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“16 years ago, I sat next to Kathie Lee and she changed my life. She chose me. And truth be told, I was scared. I’d never done anything like this before,” Kotb reflected in a “love letter” she wrote to fans during her last Hoda & Jenna episode. “I ripped off that news corset, we poured ourselves a glass of wine, and so it began.”
She recalled how cohosting with Bush Hger felt like a “new era started,” adding, “Six unforgettable years, uncontrollable laughter and pure friendship,” she gushed. “I can hardly even say her name without laughing out loud, but that is not the part I fell in love with. I fell in love with her tears, her vulnerable, lovable self.”
Kotb concluded her message on a heartfelt note, stating: “I’ve become who I am on this hour of this show, and you were there with me every step of the way. So, as I sit here today in my final moments on this final day in this chapter of my career, I want to say thank you, from the bottom of my very full heart, for the ride of a lifetime. I love you.”
Her grand finale on Today ended with a clip of her and her kids riding away from the Today Plaza in her minivan.
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