Hoda Kotb Opens Up About Her Breast Cancer Battle And The ‘Downside’ Of Dealing With It So Publicly On ‘Today’

"The downside is people look at you with pity and I have to say, for me personally, that's one of the hardest looks to ever get because someone feeling sorry for you, like, 'oh poor thing'... and they say one of the worst things you can do as a parent is put pity on your kids."

She continued: "But Olivia's point is, 'look I'm here, I'm ready to talk about it,' and it was such a shocking story." Jenna agreed, and added: "When you are going through such scary things, it's hard because you kind of want to keep it private. Everybody has different opinions."

Hoda Kotb Reveals Why She Went Public With Breast Cancer Diagnosis

During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show in October 2020, Hoda revealed that she made the decision to go public about her breast cancer battle after speaking to a stranger on an airplane.

"When I was working at NBC with breast cancer, I was determined to put that deep in my pockets and not share that because I didn't want to be that person," Hoda confessed at the time, before going on to reference a conversation she had with the stranger when they asked why she was wearing a compression sleeve.

Hoda said she explained that she was battling cancer, and added: "But I said to him, 'I hope that's not how you remember me.' And he said, 'What's wrong with you? Having cancer is part of you. It's like working at NBC or getting married or graduating college. Let me give you some advice and you can go to sleep: don't hog your journey, it's not just for you.'"

"I sat there in that moment with a complete stranger and realized I had just changed the path of my life. He said, 'You can put your stuff deep in your pockets and take it to your grave or you can help someone. Those are your choices, A or B, choose.'" She added: "When he said that I was so struck by the fact that I wanted to hide the bad parts of my life and suddenly I felt lifted and lighter and I mentioned it at work when I had kept it a secret, I said it out loud, and all of a sudden I found it really was helping people. It shaped me. It didn't define me, but you can still help people with that."