Hoda Kotb Gives Update on Her Dating Life Following Split From Fiancé

It has been four months since Hoda Kotb announced her split from fiancé Joel Schiffman, but the Today show co-anchor isn’t quite ready to re-enter the dating game. Kotb recently opened up about how she is enjoying her single life and her thoughts about returning to the dating scene in a conversation with Entertainment Tonight.

Speaking with the outlet as she walked the red carpet at The Hollywood Reporter‘s Annual Most Powerful People in New York Media event on Tuesday, Kotb admitted that she isn’t in a rush to begin dating again. Instead, the Today anchor said she is “tiptoeing along” when it comes to getting back into the dating scene and is instead “treasuring this time” as a single woman. Kotb told the outlet that since her split, she has been “really enjoying my kids and my life.” Kotb is mom to daughters, Haley Joy, 5, and Hope Catherine, 3.

When Kotb does decide to re-enter the dating game, anyone wanting to whisk her off her feet won’t have an easy time. Kotb’s Today co-host Savannah Guthrie, who appeared alongside Kotb with Jenna Bush Hager, joked that “anybody who wants to date Hoda has to go through us first.” Hager added, “Yeah, and good luck. She’s got two sisters who are wildly protective. Good luck!” The comments earned a laugh from Kotb.

The candid discussion about her dating life followed the Jan. 31 news that Kotb and Schiffman decided to go their separate ways. Kotb announced their split on Today, telling viewers that after “a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations,” she and Schiffman “decided that we are 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 adorably delightful children and as friends.” Kotb went on to explain that “it’s not like something happened. They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, a season or a lifetime, this was for a season.”

Kotb and Schiffman’s split came three years after Schiffman, a financier, dropped to one knee and popped the question in November 2019. The former couple first went public with their relationship in 2015 after two years of dating. Although they initially planned to marry in November 2020, they were forced to put those plans on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.