Hoda Kotb, 58, returned to her anchoring duties on the Today show Monday, March 30 after a two-week absence. The Emmy-winning journalist, whose podcast Making Space with Hoda Kotb is returning for a third season, had been off live airways since February 17, dealing with what Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones explained in a March 1 broadcast was “a family health matter.” It was later revealed that her 3-year-old daughter Hope was sick and in the ICU but is back at home now.
READ MORE: ‘Today’ Fans Watch As Hoda Kotb And Jenna Bush Hager Correct Savannah Guthrie’s Mistake On Live TV
NEW: Hoda Kotb returns to TODAY after handling her daughter’s health matter.
“I’m so grateful she’s home,” Hoda said. pic.twitter.com/z5f8herdyB
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 6, 2023
Hoda Kotb Returns To ‘Today’ After 3-Year-Old Daughter’s ICU Stay
Hoda elaborated more on what happened during the show with her co-host Savannah Guthrie, explaining that her daughter Hope Catherine had health complications that landed her in the intensive care unit at the hospital.
“My youngest, Hope, was in the ICU for and then in the hospital for a little over a week,” Hoda opened up to Savannah, 51, on Today. “I’m so grateful she’s home, she is back home. I was waiting for that day to come, and we are watching her closely.”
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“You know what I realized too, Savannah? It’s like, when your child is ill, the amount of gratitude you can have for people who helped you out,” she continued. “So I’m grateful for the doctors at Weill Cornell who were amazing and the nurses. And I’m grateful for my family and I’m grateful [for] friends like you who were there every single day. So I want to say thank you for that. I love you.”
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Savannah held Hoda’s hand and gave her support during her speech. “I love you too,” she expressed, “It’s nice to have you right back where you belong.”
“You have a lot of friends out there,” she added. “We are right there with you, lifting you up and holding you. So let’s do this.”
Savannah also returned to Today on Monday after she left midshow when she tested positive for coronavirus on February 28. In Hoda and Savannah’s absences, Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones, and Carson Daly took over anchoring duties.
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During her break from Today, Hoda was active on social media, sharing inspirational and encouraging messages that had fans worried before the recent announcement. “Choose hope,” a message earlier this month read, while she later shared, “Sometimes miracles are just good people with kind hearts.”
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Hoda Kotb’s Children
Hoda adopted both Hope and her other daughter Haley Joy, 6 with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman. The anchor recently appeared on PEOPLE‘s podcast Me Becoming Mom back in October 2021, where she opened up about her journey to motherhood. She also shared the tear-jerking story of when she realized she wanted children.
“I was actually with a girlfriend and we were walking down a street and I remember it like it was yesterday,” she said. ” … Because I had never shared it with anyone that I had wanted — I still yearned for [having children] because it seemed like wanting to go to the moon, it’s not happening, so don’t even bring it up.”
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She added, “So she said, ‘Well, neither of us really wanted to have children.’ I looked at her and I said, ‘Well, I do.’ I didn’t say did, I said I do. She looked at me and she goes, ‘What?’ I started crying. I said, ‘I do. I do.’ I said out loud, ‘I do.’ It was so weird. It was an everyday moment that turned into an epiphany and I had never spoken. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I do want to have children, right now. Here, in my current state.” Aw!
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