Hoda Kotb is opening up about one of the most meaningful conversations of her life: the moment she told her daughters that they were adopted.
The beloved former Today anchor—who shares daughters Haley, 8, and Hope, 6, with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman—recently revealed how she approached the tender subject in a way that was both heartfelt and age-appropriate.
“For my kids, they were asking me, I was telling them about adoption, and I thought, ‘How do you tell that story to your kids?’” Hoda shared during a September 23 appearance on Today. “I said at first, ‘You weren’t born in my tummy, you were born in my heart,’ and they were like, ‘Oh, OK.’”
But as her daughters grew older, Hoda wanted to give them a fuller understanding. “I thought, ‘I have to tell them every child comes from a tummy,’” she recalled. “So I go, ‘Well actually, you came from another person’s tummy.’”
The 61-year-old explained that she framed their birth story as a gift from what she lovingly calls their “birth mother angel.” “God gave her the job to carry you so that she could give you to me,” Hoda told her girls.
The deeply personal moment is also chronicled in Hoda’s new book, Jump and Find Joy: Embracing Change in Every Season of Life, released September 23. In it, she reflects on what she calls “jumping into motherhood” later in life, as well as the many leaps of faith she’s taken in her career and personal journey.
This isn’t the first time Hoda has opened up about prioritizing family. Earlier this year, she announced her departure from Today, citing her desire to be more present with Haley and Hope. “Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have,” she previously said. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.”
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Looking back, she admitted leaving her post wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. “My broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie,” she shared at the time. “I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited.”
In her book, Hoda also recalls a conversation with country star Thomas Rhett, who adopted his oldest daughter with wife Lauren Akins. “When I shared with Thomas that my two daughters were starting to ask questions about their adoption, he said that he and Lauren were navigating the topic as well,” she writes.
“Adoption is one of the most beautiful things in the world,” Rhett told her. “And I don’t think at the beginning of it you think, ‘In six years I’m going to have to start answering some really intense questions.’ What age is the right age for the conversation? How do I preserve their wonderful innocence? We try to be as honest as we can without the confusion.”
