Hoda Kotb is an American Author, Broadcast Journalist, and TV Personality. She is the main co-anchor on the NBC News morning show Today and co-hosts the fourth hour, which is all about entertainment. Kotb used to be a reporter for Dateline NBC, which is a news magazine show on TV.
Early Years
Hoda Kotb was born in Norman, Oklahoma, on August 9, 1964. She spent her childhood in Morgantown, West Virginia, and Alexandria, Virginia. During the 1990s, she was living in New Orleans. The parents of Kotb are both from Egypt.
Kotb and her family lived in both Egypt and Nigeria for a year. Adel is her brother, and Hala is her sister. Sameha (also called “Sami”), her mother, worked at the Library of Congress. Abdel Kader Kotb, her father, was an expert on fossil energy and was in the Who’s Who of Technology. In 1986, when he was 51 years old, he died.
During an interview with the 92nd Street Y, Kotb talked about her memories of summer vacations in Egypt and her veiled cousins. She also talked about how her parents move to the U.S. saved her from having to do the same:
We met our cousins, who were identical to us. Some of them were wearing caps. I still remember saying, “Oh, my God. Like, “I could have done that.” You don’t know how much your parents love you until you move away.
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In her autobiography, Kotb also talked indirectly about her family’s Muslim background when she talked about how her relatives in Egypt tried to set her up with men.
During my visit, I would be sitting on the couch when the doorbell would ring. “Hoda, there’s someone at the door for you… ” “Oh, Lord.” Say hello to Mohamed. He was born in Cairo. He is going to school for engineering, and he drives a Mercedes.’ Really? He is also wearing a long white dress for men. Okay, just call it a mess.
In 1982, she got her diploma from Fort Hunt High School. She was chosen as the homecoming queen and asked to speak at the baccalaureate service for her class. During her time at Virginia Tech, Kotb was a member of the Beta Nu Chapter of the Delta Delta Delta sorority for women.
Kotb earned her Bachelor of Arts in broadcast journalism in 1986. Kotb was the graduation speaker at her alma mater, Virginia Tech, in 2008. During her speech, she played “Enter Sandman” by Metallica from her iPod. Kotb was chosen to serve on the Virginia Tech Alumni Association Board of Directors for three years in 2010.
Is Hoda Kotb Gay?
No, Hoda Kotb is Not Gay and Her Sexual Orientation is Straight. She has been on the Kathy Lee and Hoda show with her Ex-Boyfriend Joel Schiffman.
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Why Did Hoda Kotb and Joel Schiffman Break Up?
Hoda Kotb and Joel Schiffman, who had been together for a long time, have broken up.
The couple broke up after getting engaged in November 2019. They have two daughters together, Hope, 2, and Haley, 4, and have been together since 2013.
Kotb, 57, broke the news on Monday’s TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, saying that some viewers had asked why she hadn’t been wearing her engagement ring.
“Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and deep conversations over the holidays, and we’ve decided that we’re better as friends and parents than as an engaged couple. So we’ve decided to start the new year… on our new path as loving parents to our adorable, delightful children and as friends,” said Kotb.
“Not that anything happened. People say that sometimes people are meant to be together for a reason, a season, or for the rest of their lives. I think ours was only meant to be there for a while “In her talk with co-host Jenna Bush Hager, she said that.
Hoda says her engagement has been called off. “We decided we are better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple,” she says. pic.twitter.com/zOJrvhE6wZ
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) January 31, 2022
Admitting that it felt awkward to talk about it “Kotb said she felt “Weird and Awkward” and was “struggling with…’What do I say?'” How do I say it?'”
But during the conversation, the longtime TV reporter focused on the “Joyous Moments” of her relationship with Schiffman, 63.
“A lot of women know how it feels to change directions in life, and I feel very brave right now, which is an odd feeling,” she said. “But sometimes you just have to tell the truth in life.”
“You can carry it and act like it’s not there. You wonder, “Am I just being too hopeful?” Kotb added. “And sometimes you realize that being optimistic is like trying to put a circle in a square: sometimes it just doesn’t work, and that’s okay. I feel better now that I’ve been able to admit it.”
Bush Hager, who is 40 years old, told her co-host that she “can’t think of anyone stronger” or “More Courageous” than Kotb “to tell the truth” about what is going on.
“I think there’s nothing that makes you feel better than telling the truth,” Kotb replied.
Bush Hager said, “You always say it’s how we start something and how we end it.”
Kotb said this about Schiffman: “He is a good person. He is a very loving and kind person, and I feel lucky to have known him for eight years. We’re both fine, and we’re both going in the right direction. We’ll be good parents to those two cute kids.”
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Before going public in 2015, Kotb and Schiffman, a financier, dated in secret for a few years.
The couple got engaged in November 2019. Schiffman asked her to marry him while they were having a quiet dinner on the beach.
The two had planned to get married in November 2020, but Kotb said on the Today show last summer that she and Schiffman were “just trying to make sure that everyone can travel” to their wedding because the COVID-19 pandemic had made it hard.
“We want to do it in a place that means a lot to us, and we want our closest friends and family to be there,” Kotb said. “But Joel kept asking, “Why do we have to wait? Let’s just get going.'”
In October, Kotb talked to Schiffman about being a parent for the first time on the first episode of PEOPLE’s podcast Me Becoming Mom. She talked about the process of adopting Haley and Hope and how her then-boyfriend helped her early on.
“I was scared,” Kotb said, remembering the first time she brought up adoption with Schiffman. “How should I say this?” I don’t know what he will say. I think what scared me the most was knowing that I was still going to do it.”
“I looked him in the eye and told him, “I’d like to talk to you about adoption.” And for a moment, I thought, “This is either the end of a relationship or the start of a family.” This is happening right now, right away “she said.
When she saw how interested he was in the idea, “I knew at that moment that I had made the right decision because it was the thing that would make me the happiest person on earth… He made everything so simple and clear, “Kotb said. “I said, “I did the right thing. I chose a man who, maybe at that time, put my happiness ahead of his own.”
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