Congrats, Hoda!
Today show host Hoda Kotb adopted her second baby girl, and she announced the exciting news over the phone on Tuesday during the show. She named her new baby Hope Catherine Kotb, who joins big sister Haley Joy Kotb.
“She was trying to feed her her raspberries and I was like, ‘Not yet, babe,’” Kotb said, and told her colleagues and the audience that Haley was marching around saying she was a big sister.
The 54-year-old mom of two shared an Instagram post on Monday that secretly hinted at the news. The post read, “Choose Hope.” (You tricky lady, you.) The Today show followed up with a pic of Kotb with both of her daughters.
“My God, my heart just grew,” she said of the moment they handed baby Hope to her. “I can’t believe it’s happening, y’all.”
Kotb and partner Joel Schiffman adopted Haley two years ago. The journalist and new mom visited The Ellen DeGeneres show in January 2018 and opened up about her decision to adopt her now 2-year-old daughter, Haley, and the emotional moment she became a parent.
Kotb was sitting in her office when she received a text from the adoption agency saying, “Call me.” Kotb recalled, “I stopped for a minute. I looked at the clock and I wrote down 11:54 a.m. I knew that was the minute it was changing. I just felt it and I dialed the number, and [a woman from the adoption agency] answered the phone and she said, ‘She’s here.’”
Kotb recalled, “I had thought about having kids for a long, long time. But one day I was sitting with my boyfriend and I said to him, ‘I’m going to have to talk to you about something because I can’t push it down anymore, push it away.’ I said, ‘Don’t answer now. Take a day, take a week, take some time. But I want to talk to you about this.’ And he said, ‘OK, what is it?’ And I said, ‘I would like to explore adoption with you.’”
Schiffman didn’t hesitate for a moment. “He looked at me and said, ‘I don’t need a day,’” Kotb said. “And I knew I’d chosen the right man.”
And now, baby Hope makes four. (And we’re sure there wasn’t a dry eye watching Today.)
