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Today's Hoda Kotb makes emotional revelation about personal life as she talks daughters and adoption

The NBC star is a doting mom to daughters Haley and Hope

Hanna Fillingham
US Managing Editor
March 21, 2023
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Hoda Kotb loves nothing more than being a mom and often shares updates on her two young daughters, Haley, six, and Hope, three, and their family life.

The Today star recently shared an emotional story involving her adoption process while chatting to Michelle Obama on her The Light Podcast - revealing that she never believed she would one day become a mom until she said it out loud.

She explained: "You know what's funny? I actually always wanted children, but I never said it out loud because I was married, divorced, and I had breast cancer all during that window when it's supposed to happen and so I just never spoke about it."

VIDEO: Everything you need to know about Hoda Kotb's family life

The mother-of-two continued: "One day I was walking just down the street with a good friend of mine and she said casually, 'Well, we never wanted kids,' because she's married, been married for years. And for the very first time I said, 'Well, actually I did.' And she goes, 'You never said it.' And I said, 'Well, I never said it because I don't want to say something out loud that I know I'll never be able to have, so I never said it.'"

Hoda then changed her outlook in that moment because after saying it out loud to her friend, everything changed.

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She said: "Then it taught me something in that minute and if you want something, say it out loud, even just to yourself in the bathroom mirror, say it, because Michelle, after I said it out loud, I have chills on my body, after I said it out loud, I said, I saw a story about Sandra Bullock, my exact age who just adopted a child. And I go, oh my gosh.

today hoda kotb joel daughters

Hoda Kotb adopted her two daughters with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman

"Everywhere I turned, I saw possibility. So I decided I'm going to fill out the paperwork and I did all the things I was supposed to do. I'm sitting in my office and I'll never forget it. I got a text and it said it was from Ashley, and Ashley, from the adoption agency, said, 'If I ever text you, call me immediately.' I saw the text, it said, call me. I took out a yellow pad like this one, and I wrote 11:05 AM."

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The proud parent then recalled what she thought as her then baby daughter, Haley, had arrived. "This is the moment. I dialed the number and she said two words, 'She's here.'"

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