TODAY Host Hoda Kotb Gives Happy News About Daughter Hope, Says She Is ‘On The Mend’

Aug 08, 2023

Hoda Kotb is a first-generation American broadcaster and TV personality. While her parents immigrated to the United States from Egypt, Kotb was born in Norman, Oklahoma, on Aug. 9, 1954. After rising to stardom on the NBC morning news show TODAY, Kotb has become a household name. 

These days, Kotb is raising and multiplying her family members together with her fiance, Joel Schiffman, as the couple adopted a daughter named Hope Catherine, now two, in 2019. The girl is the little sister of four-year-old Haley Joy, who was adopted by the couple on Feb. 21, 2017.

But Kotb’s journey to motherhood hasn’t been an easy one. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2007, the disease left her unable to have children of her own. Yet she still dreamed of being a parent one day.

While battling cancer, Kotb split up with her then-husband Burzis Kanga. In the years following, Kotb wanted to be a mother but didn’t know how her dream would come about in her situation. Not until she talked about it with her now-fiance, Joel Schiffman, in 2017. 

Since then, Kotb has been happily sharing bits of updates and information about her children. On Aug. 2, 2023, Kotb announced her upcoming book, “Hope is a Rainbow,” which was inspired by her youngest daughter, Hope. As she made the announcement, she also gave an update on the well-being of her daughter, whose health required the famed broadcaster to leave the show for quite a while. Keep on reading to learn more about Kotb’s journey, her daughter’s well-being, and details about her book. 

In March 2023, Kotb took a days off from TODAY to tend to a “family health matter.” 

“My youngest, Hope, was in the ICU for a few days and in the hospital for a little more than a week,” Hoda said at the time after she returned. “I’m so grateful she’s home. She is back home. I was waiting for that day to come. And we are watching her closely. I’m just so happy.”

While talking to her co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, Kotb emotionally reflected on the pains of motherhood as she realized that when her child is ill, her gratitude for people grew, especially for those who have helped her. 

“I’ ’m grateful for the doctors at Weill Cornell who were amazing and the nurses. And I’m grateful to my family, and I’m grateful to friends like you who were there every single day. So, I want to say thank you for that. I love you,” she continued to say. 

Per Kotb, the ordeal was “really scary,” and she emphasized that she was “happy” now that her youngest daughter was already out of the woods. 

“I’m over the moon that she’s home,” she recalled. “And I can’t believe how amazing people are. Like, that’s the thing I learned through all this; the nurses who stood by her all the way, the nurses who checked on her constantly, the doctors who came in, the people who took care of us. And I felt like we were held.”

Kotb had repeatedly expressed how grateful she was for the adoption of her daughters. With her cancer diagnosis, Kotb has remained optimistic through it all, and she wrote that in her new book. 

Announcing the news on TODAY on Aug. 2, 2023, Kotb shared that she will be releasing her latest book, “Hope is a Rainbow,” which will be available for sale on Mar. 5, 2024. 

Apparently, Kotb wrote the book “a while ago before Hope was, you know, got sick and is on the mend and all that stuff.” 

“It was based on my daughter, who of course I had dreamt of her and hoped for her and her name just fell in,” Hoda recalled. “It just reminds me — and she just reminds me — that hope is all around every corner. No matter what you go through, no matter what hardship you endure, there she is.”

Revealing more about her youngest daughter, Kotb said that she drew inspiration from her in writing the book. 

“My daughter Hope is so inspiring to me. She’s a little child but with a real kind of old spirit, an old soul. There’s something about her in how she sees magic in everything,” she explained. 

According to Kotb, Hope has been drawn to rainbows since she was a baby, hence the title of the book. For the Daytime Emmy winning-broadcaster, her daughter Hope is the rainbow. 

“A rainbow to me represents something that you can’t quite touch, but it’s magical and amazing. So when I thought about how I carry Hope in my heart, I realized, ‘She IS a rainbow.’ She’s this beautiful, magical, incredible child. It just got me thinking about all the things where kids find magic and hope, and this book is full of that,” she elaborated. 

Are you a fan of Hoda Kotb? What can you say about the inspiration for her new book? Do you agree that her daughter is inspiring? Let us know, and pass this on to your family and friends!