Hoda Kotb Reveals Boyfriend Joel Schiffman Is Listed as Daughter Haley’s Father on Adoption Papers: ‘He’s an Amazing Dad’
TV personality Wendy Williams couldn’t wait to ask Hoda Kotb if the father of her 2-year-old adopted daughter, Haley Joy Kotb, is her boyfriend, Joel Schiffman, when she stopped by her talk show on Tuesday, March 12.
“Is he on the papers?” Wendy asked the Today star before she joyfully replied, “He’s the father!” The audience then cheered for Hoda, 54, who recalled being scared when she asked Joel, 60, if he wanted to have another child.
“This is what I did. I was scared because we were about to move in and I said that I cannot move in with him unless he knows that I have this voice inside — I have this feeling inside that I can’t push down anymore,” she said. “I wanted to be a mom and I kept thinking today is the day and I went to Joel and I said to him, ‘I need to discuss something with you and it’s very important.'”
“I said, ‘I want you not to answer me now. I want you to marinate. I want you to take a week, take a month, take as long as you need,'” she continued. “And he looked at me like he was terrified. And I said, ‘There’s a feeling inside that I can’t quiet anymore and I have to say it out loud and I’m going to say it.'”
Hoda then mustered up all of her courage to tell Joel how she really felt about having kids. “I said, ‘I want to explore adoption with you,'” she remembered, and to her surprise, Joel felt the exact same way! “He said, ‘I don’t need a minute,'” Hoda gushed to Wendy. “I cried on his chest and my mascara went down because in that minute he knew that there was nothing that could make me happier.”
“He is the finest man I have ever met,” she gushed about Joel, who’s a proud dad to Haley and his older daughter, Kyle Schiffman. “He’s an awesome dad!”
