Hoda Kotb Gets Emotional Discussing Daughter's Health Scare Amid 'Today' Show Return
Hoda Kotb got emotional Monday morning opening up about her 3-year-old daughter Hope's recent health scare, which landed her in the ICU. Upon her return to Today this week, Kotb spoke about the scary reason she was absent for two weeks. Returning to Studio 1A on Monday for the first time since "a family health matter" pulled her from the air in mid-February, Kotb told viewers about Hope's health complications.
Although Kotb, who is also mom to 6-year-old daughter Haley Joy, stopped short of revealing too many details, she did tell viewers that her "youngest, Hope, was in the ICU for a few day and then in the hospital for a little over a week." Kotb explained that little Hope is now home, sharing, "She is back home. I was waiting for that day to come, and we are watching her closely." She got choked up telling her co-host Savannah Guthrie about how grateful she is for the people who helped her and Hope along the way.
"You know what I realized too, Savannah, is like, when your child is ill, the amount of gratitude you can have or people who helped you out," Kotb said, tearing up. "I'm grateful for the doctors, 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."
Prior to her return, the only other indication regarding the reason for Kotb's absence came on March 1, when Craig Melvin told viewers that Kotb had "a family health matter she's been dealing with," without providing any further information. Kotb herself hadn't addressed her absence prior to her Monday return. She was, however, relatively active on social media, where she shared various messages on Instagram. On Feb. 24, just a week after she last appeared on Today via a pre-taped President's Day segment, she shared a post reading, "Here's to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them," adding in the caption, "I see you... you strong women." A week later, she shared a post reading, "Sometimes miracles are just good people with kind hearts," with a message earlier this month reading, "choose hope." Her most recent social media post came Monday morning, Kotb sharing a quote from Christopher Reeve that said, "once you choose hope, anything's possible."
Kotb welcomed daughters Hope and Haley via adoption with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman. She frequently posts about her home life on social media. She adopted Haley in 2017, and Hope a few years later, telling PEOPLE last year, "I always imagined family as my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister. I envisioned it that way until I was 50. Imagine someone saying, 'Hey, guess what? You're actually going to have a whole other family.' It still surprises me! It delights me to know that I have Haley and Hope. They fell asleep on me yesterday after having meltdowns, and I sang to them, and in that moment I was just thinking to myself, 'I get to feel these things. We get to have this together.' It blows my mind that I get to have this adorable little family that's just right for me."