Hoda Kotb Explains Why She’s Moving From the City to the Suburbs With Daughters Haley and Hope
Hoda Kotb revealed that she is moving her family from the city to the suburbs for a very touching reason.
"I want my kids to feel grass on their feet, and play in the yard, and ride bikes down the street, and run up and down the stairs," the broadcaster told People in a Monday, August 12, interview about moving. "I just see that life for them in this perfect house in this beautiful little town where I know they'll be able to blossom into beautiful, independent, strong women."
Hoda, 60, shares daughters Haley and Hope with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman. She explained that she will be saying goodbye to the New York City apartment she raised her girls in. Though they have not yet officially moved into the new home, she is already so excited about what’s to come in their life outside of the city in what she is referring to as her "repotting phase."
"It's like my roots need a bigger pot," the mom of two told the outlet. "You know when you take a plant out of a pot, and it's roots are all twisted and tight? And then you put it in a bigger pot with fresh new soil and it just grows bigger and stronger? That's the journey I'm on right now. And it's going to hurt a little, to leave that pot that was so comfortable for so long. But in the end, it's going to be exactly what we need."
Of course for Hoda, becoming a mom has been one of the most rewarding parts of her life. After surviving breast cancer, the TV presenter was crushed to learn that the idea of freezing her eggs would not be possible.
“She basically said that given my age and [my breast cancer treatment], it was pretty close to a dead-end,” Hoda reflected on a conversation with her oncologist during a March 2022 interview with Good Housekeeping. “I was in my room, and I just sobbed. I thought, 'Well, that’s that, isn’t it?' Like, you almost blame yourself. 'Why didn’t I do this? Why didn’t I do that?' So I just pushed it away because the reality seemed impossible to bear.”
"How do you survive knowing you can’t have what you desire and what you feel like you actually physically need?” she continued.
In 2017, Hoda’s dream of being a mother came true when she adopted Haley. Two years later, she and Joel, 66, adopted Hope. Though she and Joel are no longer together, they have worked on a coparenting schedule for their daughters and remain friends.
Now in her 60th year of life, Hoda is excited to embrace all of the changes and new ventures, whether it be moving, dating, traveling and more.
"I remember, vividly, turning 50 and saying to myself: 'This life that you have is great and don't ask for more because you're deserving of only what you have and nothing beyond.' And I remember wondering if I was worthy of being a mother," she said on Today during her 60th birthday bash. "I wondered that, and one day I just decided that maybe it's OK to say the words out loud: 'I wish that I could be a mom.'”
"I said it at 50, and I thought I was speaking it out into the air, but what I was doing was I was speaking it out into the universe. And then all of a sudden, things started happening," she added.
Haley and Hope were adorably in the audience to hear their mom talk so candidly about parenthood.
"And lo and behold in my 50s, I've got Haley Joy Kotb, who's over there, and then I got Hope Catherine Kotb who's right there. And I realized that sometimes we think that our blessings have passed us by, but no. They're coming,” Hoda gushed.
