Hoda Kotb is getting candid about parenthood as a single mom.
“I’m raising my kids essentially by myself,” Kotb, 60, said on the Wednesday, May 14, episode of the “Making Space” podcast. “I often think about like, ‘How will they understand what love looks like?’”
After guest Emma Grede opened up about her family dynamics, Kotb noted, “Families are big and they come in different shapes and sizes.”
Kotb adopted daughters Haley and Hope in 2017 and 2019, respectively, with her then-partner, Joel Schiffman. Kotb announced in 2022 that she and Schiffman, who were together for eight years, called off their engagement.
“Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we are better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple, so we decided we are going to start this new year on our new path as loving parents to our adorably delightful children and as friends,” she said during an episode of the Today show at the time. “It’s not like something happened. They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, a season or a lifetime, this was for a season.”
Two years later, Kotb revealed that she was dipping her toe in the dating pool again.
“I do have to say something, something did happen the other day that hasn’t happened in two years,” Kotb teased during a 2024 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I had a date! I had a date.”
While Kotb remained tight-lipped about her mystery man, she told Entertainment Tonight in 2024 that she was set-up by BFF and Today show colleague Jenna Bush Hager. She was later spotted in New York City with the new beau, per photos obtained by Page Six. Months later, Kotb shared that the relationship had been put on pause.
“I did go on the third date, but I did kind of decide in that space — because this person who’s a lovely human being has a lot of … things that are being worked out — that I think I’m looking for more … simplicity,” she said on an August 2024 episode of “The Jamie Kern Lima Show” podcast.
While Kotb noted that she’s normally a “fixer,” she explained this romance had been “tabled beautifully.” She added, “He’s very cute, by the way, extremely handsome. I’ll show you a picture after, but [things are] tabled for now.”
Kotb noted that she has “not yet” met anyone new since her romance with the mystery man, explaining that she’s hoping to find someone who is “adding and not subtracting” to her life.
“In this moment, I just want addition, you know, because I feel like when I kind of map my days out and see what free time do I really have, it’s so limited that you want to make sure when you have it that you’re spending it with someone who’s in the addition business of your life,” she shared.
In 2025, Kotb departed from the Today show — with her daughters playing a big role in her decision to leave.
“I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking they deserve a bigger piece of my time, the pie that I have,” she explained while announcing her exit in 2024. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time. And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world.”
