At 59, Hoda Kotb Had To Deal With Mom-Shaming Comments That Rocked Her To The Core

Apr 24, 2023 by apost team

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, 1964. Rising to stardom on the NBC morning news show ”Today," Kotb has become a household name. 

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.

“Cancer shaped me, but it did not define me. It’s part of me, but not all of me. It just goes to show you that in my early 40s, I was sick, I was getting divorced, and I was in a job that I wasn’t suited for,” she said at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation's symposium in 2017. 

In the years following her battle with cancer, Kotb has been candid about her experience. 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.

Eventually, Kotb adopted Haley Joy with her then-partner Joel Schiffman in 2017, days after she was born. Everyone in the TV studio where Kotb shared her adoption story was in tears. She shared that she then felt full and fulfilled with Haley and Schiffman and their lives together.

Like any mother out there, Kotb experienced difficulty, especially being one at a rather unconventional age. In a conversation on her own show, “Today with Hoda and Jenna,” she tearfully recalled being mom-shamed through a personal handwritten note criticizing her for having a child at a rather old age. Read on to learn more about Kotb’s heartbreaking experience. 

These days, Kotb is raising and multiplying her family members together with her ex-partner, Schiffman, as the couple adopted a daughter named Hope Catherine, now 4, in 2019. The girl is the little sister of 6-year-old Joy, who, as mentioned, they adopted back in 2017. 

On the topic of female celebrities and personalities being body-shamed in social media and held to certain beauty standards, Kotb had a retrospective revelation about the time when she received a scathing and demeaning handwritten letter delivered to her own house. 

"I opened the letter and it was something along the lines of, 'How dare you bring a child into this world at your age? Don't you know what you're doing to that child?' Like, it went on and on,” she said in an interview. 

Per Kotb, the letter and the emotion that enveloped her back then “took” her breath away. 

“I was scared. Like, is this something that is smart for me to do? Am I helping or am I going to ultimately be harming? Like, I've thought about that,” she continued. 

Because of the letter, Kotb, at the time, reflected on losing her father back in 1981. 

"I remember thinking, we have our parents for a period of time. I know the foundation he left. I know it was worth every second of that time. So I thought about that too. It can hit you in a place where you're the most vulnerable."

After the revelation, Kotb received supportive and affirming messages online. 

“I am so very sorry you experienced that Hoda! Your girls are so very blessed to have you as their mom. Don’t ever doubt that,” a user commented. 

“Having a parent who lives and cares for them is what matters. No one’s business her or anyone’s age,” another shared. 

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Do you think women could still have children late in life? What can you say about the letter that Hoda Kotb received? Do you think she deserved that? Let us know, and pass this on to your family, friends, and other loved ones!