How 'Today' Host Hoda Kotb Spent Easter Following Joel Schiffman Breakup
Hoda Kotb has been all smiles this Easter season. On Sunday, April 17, the TODAY Show co-host, 57, shared photos with her two daughters – Haley, 4, and Hope, 2. Her mother, Sameha Kotb, was also gathered for the celebration as Sameha was also celebrating her birthday. Hoda put on a big smile while posing in the living room of her home surrounded by various Easter decorations. "Happy Birthday Mom!!! Happy Easter," she captioned the post. Kotb shares her two daughters with ex-fiancé, Joel Schiffman, whom they welcomed via adoption. It marks the first Easter without Schiffman by her side.
Kotb reportedly ended her engagement to Schiffman because she thought their marriage would not work out, an insider told Page Six. She didn't address the split until Jan. 31 after viewers asked her about her missing engagement ring. The split happened around the Christmas holiday. She told viewers she felt that after "a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations," they realized they were better off as friends.
Kotb says there wasn't anything specific that triggered the breakup. "It's not like something happened," she said at the time. "They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, a season or a lifetime, this was for a season."
Kotb has a lot to celebrate outside of the holidays. She and her co-host Savannah Guthrie were inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. The two began working as co-anchors on TODAY in 2018 following Kathie Lee Gibson's departure.
During Kotb's acceptance speech, she reflected on how far she's come in her career and personally. "We need to know our worth," Hoda told women in the audience. "And when I speak about not knowing your worth, I'm kind of speaking to myself, too. I've spent a lot of my career thinking I didn't deserve all the things I got, even after I worked so hard. I didn't think I deserve to work at 'Dateline' or sit with Kathie Lee, and certainly not the TODAY show."