Hoda Kotb’s Heartbreaking Announcement: ‘I Just Sobbed’

Hoda Kotb just opened up about her struggles in becoming a mother after undergoing treatment for breast cancer back in 2007, and speaking with Good Housekeeping alongside Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie, the pair detailed each of their paths to motherhood. The 57-year-old is now a mother to two daughters, but revealed the difficult times that led to their adoption.

Back in 2007 Kotb was diagnosed with breast cancer and opted to freeze her eggs in order to ensure having children was still a possibility down the road. “I remember that my oncologist called and we were talking about freezing my eggs. She basically said that given my age and [my breast cancer treatment], it was pretty close to a dead end,” the Today co-host shared.

Kotb, who has two daughters Haley and Hope with ex Joel Schiffman, continued, “I was in my room and I just sobbed. I thought, ‘Well, that’s that, isn’t it? Like, you almost blame yourself. Why didn’t I do this? Why didn’t I do that?’ “

The mother-of-two added that she struggled to come around to this idea of freezing her eggs, saying, “So I just pushed it away, because the reality seemed impossible to bear…How do you survive knowing you can’t have what you desire and what you feel like you actually physically need?”

Ultimately Kotb and her former partner Schiffman welcomed their two daughters via adoption in 2017 and 2019, but the 57-year-old also shared that being an “older” mother actually made it easier for her to be more patient with her girls. “All of a sudden all the things about having little kids that seem like a problem, you see in a whole different way,” she shared. “And I find myself being so much more patient and calm than I ever would have been at a younger age. You realize we sometimes blow things out of proportion.”

Although Kotb and Schiffman announced their split back in January after nearly eight years together, the pair still amicably co-parent their daughters.