Eighteen months after announcing her split with her fiancé Joel Schiffman, Hoda Kotb has opened up about dating with her co-host Jenna Bush Hager.
During a chat on Today with Hoda & Jenna, the TV stars raised the issue of how expensive dating can be amid inflation – known as "infla-dating" – and how to keep costs down while still having fun. Hoda, 58, revealed what she thinks is the most "memorable date", insisting that it "doesn't have to be fancy."
© Getty"You've got to get creative," Hoda said, and Jenna replied: "But the simplest date, which is the best, is a walk."
Hoda revealed it's a clear indication of whether you have anything in common with your partner. "You also know quickly because if you don't really have anything to talk about when you're on a walk, maybe you don't have much that you're clicking on," she said.
© Getty ImagesExplaining her idea of a "cool" date, Hoda told Jenna: "I mean, what if you got a call from someone who said, 'Hey let's go on a date, meet me in Central Park,' and you met him in Central Park and he had a picnic laid out. Wouldn't that be cool? It doesn't have to be fancy!"
During their brainstorming, Hoda and Jenna also brought up beach trips and hikes, the latter of which helped bond Jenna and her husband Henry Hager. "Henry and I did a lot of National Park stays before we got married," she said, reminiscing about their 2008 wedding.
Their discussion comes over a year after Hoda revealed she had ended her two-year engagement with her ex Joel, who continues to co-parent their adopted daughters Haley and Hope.
© GettyThe TV star and the New York financier first started dating in 2013 and got engaged in 2019. Hoda opened up about why she had been spotted without her engagement ring in a candid discussion on Today in January 2022.
"Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we're 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 adorable, delightful children, and as friends," she told viewers.
© Getty"It's not like something happened. They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, or a season or for a lifetime. And I feel like ours was meant to be there for a season," continued Hoda, who was previously married to Burzis Kanga from 2005 until 2008.
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