Two peas in a pod! Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb celebrated nine years together on the Today show Friday, April 7, and the cohosts shared some touching words about each other.
Kotb, 52, wasn’t actually present for their anniversary since she recently adopted a baby girl, Haley Joy, with her boyfriend, Joel Schiffman, on Valentine’s Day. But she called in to the morning show to share some special sentiments about her longtime friend.
“I want to say something to you, Kath, on our ninth anniversary, that my life has changed so profoundly since I met you. Profoundly,” Kotb said. “I told you this before, but I cannot believe the path my life took after our lives intersected, so for every single day of the nine years, I love you.”
Gifford, 63, started smiling and tearing up at the kind words. “I think she said, ‘I love you.’ I hope that’s what she said,” she quipped. While the gal pals continued to get mushy, Regis Philbin, who happened to be filling in for Kotb on Friday, offered some comic relief. “What am I doing here?” he deadpanned. “Why am I here? Somebody save me.”
Then it was Gifford’s turn to make everyone cry tears of happiness. “You’ve changed mine, too, Hoda. Honestly, I have been blessed in my life two times to work with the most extraordinary people in the world,” she said, referring to her former cohost, Philbin. “And it just keeps getting better, and I love you and come home to us soon, OK, baby?”
Kotb also gushed to Gifford and Philbin about motherhood and said the lack of sleep doesn’t bother her a bit. “I am loving it,” she declared. “I’ve had a little bit of sleep here and there, but I have to tell you, like, I have never — I’ve never in my life felt the way I’m feeling right now. And I want it — like, every day I say, ‘Let this last forever. Let today last forever.’ And tomorrow comes and tomorrow’s better than the day before! And it keeps going and going.”
