Hoda Kotb Gushes She ‘Likes the Idea’ of Giving Daughter Haley Joy a Sibling: ‘It Would Be Nice’
NBC host Hoda Kotb used to worry that she would never become a mother — and now she’s gearing up for her second child! “We like the idea of Haley [having] a sibling because she has had such interesting circumstances to grow up,” the journalist recently revealed to Entertainment Tonight. “So it would be nice to be able to share it with somebody.”
In February 2017, Hoda, 54, adopted her now 2-year-old daughter, Haley Joy, with her partner, Joel Schiffman. “It’s one of those things where you think you’ve done it all, you think you’ve felt it all. But I just didn’t know that this kind of love existed,” gushed the television newswoman whose battle with breast cancer at age 42 left her unable to conceive but still craving a child. “One of the things I’ve always wanted was to be a mom,” she previously admitted to People. After her 50th birthday, Hoda became serious about adoption.
At that point, she and Joel had been together three years, but she still felt scared to bring up the subject of adoption. “I remember when I went to speak to Joel about it … my heart was pounding. I think I was afraid of the answer, to be honest,” she has confessed. To her surprise and delight, Joel immediately agreed. “I could have died. I was crying so hard, I soaked his T-shirt. It was incredible,” she remembers.
This busy couple have very hectic lives; Joel works in finance and Hoda, who recently released a children’s book called You Are My Happy, was named permanent cohost of Today in January 2018. But they are determined to add another child to their home. “We don’t know when,” she admitted, “but it’s something that’s important to Joel and me.”
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