‘Today Show’ Host Hoda Kotb Gave Daughter Haley a ‘Secret Signal’ During Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Hoda Kotb may have been spending her Thursday morning bringing American families across the country the fun of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but her own family wasn’t far from her mind. In fact, as the Today show co-anchor went live on air, she gave a secret signal to her 3-year-old daughter Haley Joy.

Taking to Instagram Friday, Kotb told her followers that she “told Haley I would give her a secret signal from parade to say I love you!” That hand signal was a tug on my ear a la [Carol Burnett].” The message was certainly well-received, with Kotb also sharing a video of her daughter’s reaction, little Haley giggling after seeing the signal as she sat Kotb’s fiancé, Joel Schiffman’s, lap. At least one member of the family missed the covert message, though, with Kotb quipping that her 18-month-old daughter Hope Catherine “slept thru (sic) parade! Naptime!”

Kotb adopted Haley and Hope in 2017 and 2019. She has been raising her daughters alongside Schiffman. The couple began dating in 2013 after meeting through mutual friends at a Wall Street event and became engaged in November of 2019. Although the couple is still waiting to walk down the aisle, they already have more babies on the mind, with Kotb revealing just last month that she and Schiffman have filled out the paperwork to potentially adopt a third child.

“You know what, Joel and I have had this conversation because — you feel like you get limited of time on earth and your heart expands, and sometimes you don’t realize your heart’s ability to expand until you’ve filled [it] and sometimes you think you’re at the top, and then you realize that there’s more room,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “And we wondered, you know, would our family be better with another child? Do we have enough love, do we have enough time, you know, will we be a better family unit? And the answer to all those questions seems to be, ‘Yes, we would be.’”

While it remains to be seen when or if the couple could be expanding their family, Kotb was not the only one to give a special shout out to their children on Thanksgiving Day. Her Today co-host, Savannah Guthrie, also took to Instagram with a sweet tribute to daughter Vale, 6, and son Charles “Charley” Max, 4. Sharing a gallery of images, Guthrie provided a simple caption, writing that she was “thankful.”