Hoda Kotb Breaks Down in Tears on ‘TODAY’ at 60th Birthday Surprise

Hoda Kotb celebrated her 60th birthday with an emotional surprise on ‘TODAY.’

August 12, 2024, 11:20am

Hoda Kotb is taking an emotional walk down memory lane in honor of her 60th birthday. The TODAY anchor was surprised by co-hosts Craig Melvin and Savannah Guthrie during the Monday, Aug. 12 episode of the NBC morning show as she was presented with video messages from some of the people at the heart of her most impactful human interest stories.

NFL alum Devon Still and his daughter, Leah, now 14, were two of Kotb’s well-wishers. When Leah was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma in 2014, Kotb helped her and other kids fighting cancer film a music video to Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” and Sara Bareilles’ “Brave,” later updating viewers on Leah’s cancer journey for years.

Hoda Kotb couldn’t hold back her tears during the special 60th birthday celebration episode of TODAY.

“If Leah was having a bad time in the hospital, I would tell her that Hoda was on the phone. She would just have this big smile on her face,” Still, 35, said in the video message to Kotb. “People like Hoda really showed up for up for our family.”

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Bart Conley also shared a video message of his memories of how Kotb helped him and his late wife, Jill Conley. Before Jill died of breast cancer at the age of 38 in 2016, she and the journalist bonded over their shared cancer journies. “After one of the shoots for the TODAY show, we went down and had lunch with [Hoda], and those two, it was like they were [longtime] best friends,” Bart said. “Hoda had sent a video message to Jill when she was having a real hard time. It just lit up Jill’s day and it just meant so much to her.”

Hoda Kotb was surprised by the subjects of some of her most memorable human interest stories from throughout the years.

Couple Frank and Stacey Parrado also looked back on their time with Kotb after she shared the news in 2018 that they had been matched with their daughter Addison, now 6, for adoption. “We had the privilege and the blessing that Hoda got to deliver that message for us and record it for Addison to see for the rest of her life,” Frank shared.

Kotb was teary-eyed after watching back the video montage, and the emotions kept coming when the families came out on stage with flowers for Kotb in a secondary surprise. “What I love about Hoda is it’s like, for her birthday, it’s not, like, a retrospective of her life. It’s about people she cares about,” Guthrie, 52, said. “And you guys have all learned that when she cares, she cares when the cameras stop rolling.”