Hoda Kotb is back TODAY!
She returned to the show on March 6 after being away for the past few weeks to attend to a personal matter. The TODAY co-anchor told viewers that her younger daughter, Hope, 3, had been sick but is home now.
“My youngest, Hope, was in the ICU for a few days and in the hospital for a little over a week,” Hoda said at the top of the show. “I’m so thankful she’s home. She’s home again. I was waiting for that day to come. And we’re watching over her. I’m just so happy.”
Hoda then got choked up while expressing how grateful she feels while discussing the matter with co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.
“You know what I realized too, Savannah? When your child is sick, how much gratitude you can have for people who have helped you,” she said.
“I’m thankful for the doctors at Weill Cornell, who were amazing, and the nurses. And I’m thankful for my family, and I’m thankful for friends like you who were there every single day. So I want to say thank you for that. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Savannah replied.
During TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, Hoda described the ordeal as “really scary” and reiterated how happy she is now to have Hope out of the hospital.
“I’m over the moon that she’s home,” she said. “And I can’t believe how amazing people are. That’s kind of what I learned through all of this; the nurses who stood by her the whole way, the nurses who checked on her constantly, the doctors who came in , the people who took care of us. And I felt like we were being held back.”
Hoda also said that she had to take a step back to realize her happiness.
“Sometimes you talk about gratitude, and when you’re pushed to the limit, you think, ‘Do I feel it?'” she told co-host Jenna Bush Hager on the fourth hour.
Hoda, who also showed off a small pendant a friend gave her that she now wears around her neck that says “God’s got this,” added that she can now relate to the anxiety that comes with having a sick child.
“I feel blessed and grateful: really, really, really grateful,” she said. “And also anyone who’s ever been through an illness with a child, boy, I thought I understood you, but I didn’t until you’re in that position.”
On March 1, I DAG addressed Hoda’s absence.
“As for Hoda, we know some of you are wondering how she’s doing,” Craig Melvin said. “We can tell you, Hoda is fine. She has a family health case she’s been dealing with.”
Hoda’s absence coincided with Savannah also taking a break from the show. Savannah tested positive for COVID-19 on February 28 and left the anchor desk in the middle of that day’s broadcast.
“Savannah left early, she wasn’t feeling well, so she took a COVID test,” Sheinelle Jones said at the time. “It came back positive. As soon as we found out, she rushed home to rest. So Savannah, we love you.”
“We look forward to seeing (Hoda) and Savannah back here soon,” she said March 1.