Hoda Kotb’s Ups and Downs Over the Years: Joel Schiffman Split, ‘Today’ Show Absence and More

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Hoda Kotb's Ups and Downs Over the Years: Joel Schiffman Split, 'Today' Show Absence and More

Hoda Kotb has shared many life milestones — both triumphant and difficult — with TV audiences for years. The Today anchor began her tenure on the morning show in 2007 when cohosting Today With Kathie Lee & Hoda. The 10 a.m. slot quickly became a fan favorite, with viewers loving Kotb's sunny persona and positive demeanor. A decade later, Kotb replaced Matt Lauer on Today and joined Savannah Guthrie full-time after he was ousted from the network amid his on-set sexual misconduct scandal. (In 2019, Kathie Lee Gifford left her show with Kotb and was replaced by Jenna Bush Hager.) After Kotb quickly settled into the new gig, Kotb made headlines in February 2023 after missing several episodes of Today and Today With Hoda & Jenna. While Guthrie explained during the February 27 episode that “Hoda’s got the morning off,” she declined to reveal where the journalist was after more than one week off the air. Kotb, for her part, shared a cryptic message via social media that simply read “Choose Hope.” The NBC personality shares daughters Haley, whom she adopted in 2017, and Hope, whom she adopted in 2019, with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman. Two days after Guthrie’s brief explanation of her colleague’s whereabouts, coanchors Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones gave an update on Kotb’s absence, revealing that the Oklahoma native has “a family health matter that she’s been dealing with.” Melvin and Jones — who were filling in for both Kotb and Guthrie, who left the February 28 episode early after testing positive for COVID-19 — added, “We can tell you that Hoda’s OK.” [sendtonews type="float" key="HqqTMIS60B-2827991-14453"] The four-time Emmy winner has dealt with multiple hardships throughout her life, including her breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent mastectomy, her divorce from ex-husband Burzis Kanga and her split from Schiffman. Kotb, however, faced her roadblocks with a positive attitude and exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2022 that she was grateful for her “really nice, easy [coparenting] situation” with Schiffman. “He sees the kids. He takes them to school some, and he sees them on weekends,” she shared with Us two months after announcing their split. “We’ve got a really nice, easy situation.” She and Schiffman are trying their “best” while raising their two children, she added. “We make sure that the kids get plenty of him and plenty of me.” Keep scrolling to see Kotb’s ups and downs through the years:  

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Hoda Kotb's Ups and Downs Over the Years: Joel Schiffman Split, 'Today' Show Absence and More

Hoda Kotb has shared many life milestones — both triumphant and difficult — with TV audiences for years. The Today anchor began her tenure on the morning show in 2007 when cohosting Today With Kathie Lee & Hoda. The 10 a.m. slot quickly became a fan favorite, with viewers loving Kotb's sunny persona and positive demeanor. A decade later, Kotb replaced Matt Lauer on Today and joined Savannah Guthrie full-time after he was ousted from the network amid his on-set sexual misconduct scandal. (In 2019, Kathie Lee Gifford left her show with Kotb and was replaced by Jenna Bush Hager.) After Kotb quickly settled into the new gig, Kotb made headlines in February 2023 after missing several episodes of Today and Today With Hoda & Jenna. While Guthrie explained during the February 27 episode that “Hoda’s got the morning off,” she declined to reveal where the journalist was after more than one week off the air. Kotb, for her part, shared a cryptic message via social media that simply read “Choose Hope.” The NBC personality shares daughters Haley, whom she adopted in 2017, and Hope, whom she adopted in 2019, with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman. Two days after Guthrie’s brief explanation of her colleague’s whereabouts, coanchors Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones gave an update on Kotb’s absence, revealing that the Oklahoma native has “a family health matter that she’s been dealing with.” Melvin and Jones — who were filling in for both Kotb and Guthrie, who left the February 28 episode early after testing positive for COVID-19 — added, “We can tell you that Hoda’s OK.” [sendtonews type="float" key="HqqTMIS60B-2827991-14453"] The four-time Emmy winner has dealt with multiple hardships throughout her life, including her breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent mastectomy, her divorce from ex-husband Burzis Kanga and her split from Schiffman. Kotb, however, faced her roadblocks with a positive attitude and exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2022 that she was grateful for her “really nice, easy [coparenting] situation” with Schiffman. “He sees the kids. He takes them to school some, and he sees them on weekends,” she shared with Us two months after announcing their split. “We’ve got a really nice, easy situation.” She and Schiffman are trying their “best” while raising their two children, she added. “We make sure that the kids get plenty of him and plenty of me.” Keep scrolling to see Kotb’s ups and downs through the years:  

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2005 to 2008

Kotb was secretly married to Kanga for three years before things went public amid their divorce in 2008. Her former Today cohost Gifford later outed Kotb’s split during a Valentine’s Day episode of the morning show — much to Kotb’s chagrin.

"I was telling her that I was married once before and I met my husband on Valentine's Day, and I got the divorce papers on Valentine's Day and it was Valentine's Day," Kotb said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2018.

"We go out to the set. It's all decorated with flowers and hearts, and I go, 'Good morning! Happy Valentine's Day!' And [Kathie Lee] looks at me and she goes, 'Not for you!'" Kotb was shocked at her costar’s gall. “I go, 'What are you doing?' But I remember that grenade fell right on the table. I didn't know what to do. I was so new, I didn't know what to say. I said, 'That was makeup room talk. That wasn't for out here, because we're happy out here.’”

Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC

2007

One year before her divorce from her ex-husband, Kotb began her Today show reign by cohosting Kathie Lee and Hoda with Gifford. The former Regis and Kathie Lee cohost was replaced by Bush Hager in 2019.

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2007

Kotb revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Cancer and the specific types of treatment she underwent meant that freezing her eggs was “pretty close to a dead-end,” Kotb recalled to Good Housekeeping in 2022. She was devastated by the fertility news.

“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?’” she shared. “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?”

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2013

The Today With Hoda & Jenna cohost began dating Schiffman, though she kept his identity a secret for years.

Credit: Courtesy of Hoda Kotb/Instagram

February 2017

Schiffman and Kotb adopted their first daughter, Haley.

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2018

Kotb replaced Lauer as Guthrie’s Today show cohost after the disgraced journalist’s on-set sexual misconduct allegations.

Credit: Courtesy of Hoda Kotb/Instagram

April 2019

Schiffman and Kotb became parents for a second time when adopting daughter Hope.

Credit: Courtesy of Hoda Kotb/Instagram

November 2019

The couple got engaged after six years together, with Kotb excitedly sharing the news via Instagram at the time. She posted Schiffman’s beachside proposal with a photo of her showing off her engagement ring while at dinner and another snap of rose petals scattered in the sand.

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February 2022

The parents of two called off their engagement, Kotb announced on the Today show at the time, revealing her romance with Schiffman was over after more than eight years together.

"Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we're better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple, so we decided we are going to start this new year ... on our new path as loving parents to our adorable, delightful children, and as friends," she shared at the time.

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May 2022

Several months after announcing her split, Kotb told People that she can “see” herself dating someone else in the future.

“I haven’t really thought about who I would see myself with, but I do have to say something. My sister even said and asked me at one point, ‘Are (you) afraid to be by yourself?’” she recalled. “And I said to her, ‘I’m not going to be by myself.’ And I don’t know why I said it so clearly, but I actually knew that my heart is open. I have an open heart.”

Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC

February 2023

After missing several episodes of the Today show — and amid Kotb’s cryptic post that read “Choose Hope” — Melvin and Jones shared that Kotb was handling “a family health matter” but is “OK.”