Hoda Kotb Updates Fans on 4-Year-Old Daughter Hope's "Scary" Health Matter
The TODAY Host faced a massive struggle as a parent.
TODAY Host Hoda Kotb just gave fans an update about her family life.
In a recent interview with People discussing her new children's book "Hope is a Rainbow," Kotb explained that her two week absence from TODAY in February 2023 was due to a health concern involving her youngest daughter, 4-year-old Hope.
Hoda Kotb explains what happened to her daughter Hope
“We had a scary stretch. Any parent who’s been through a scary thing with their child understands. It’s like you just can’t believe that your child’s sick. You can’t believe that there’s nothing you can do. You can’t believe that no matter what you do, you can’t will it away or protect her, or all the things that we’re supposed to be doing as parents. And it’s a position I’ve never found myself in,” she told the outlet.
Kotb decided to not go into the details of Hope's condition in order to protect her.
“It’s really tricky, because I don’t want Hope to get labeled. She’s a kid who is so vibrant, and most days everything is totally fine. I don’t want people to look at her differently,'' she explained. "I’m trying so hard to let her be a kid and not have all of the grown-up worries,” she added.
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Along with Hope, Kotb also has a 7-year-old daughter named Haley.
“We eat dinner, then it’s bath time, then we march down the hall playing Lizzo’s ‘Juice’ with a little speaker until the neighbors say, ‘That’s enough. It’s too loud.’ Then it’s 8 p.m., and it’s bedtime,” she said of spending time with the little girls.
Kotb also admires Hope's outlook on life despite her difficulties.
“She likes to be protected. She looks up sometimes, and I go, ‘What are you looking at? What’s that?’ She goes, ‘Angels are here.’ And I go, ‘Where?’ She goes, ‘Here.’ And I’m laying there. I’m as quiet as I can be not to disturb the most beautiful moment,” she said.
She continued: “I look at her, and I think, ‘Wow, you blossomed into this incredible kid who is so resilient and well-equipped for her whole life despite this stuff that has happened to her. She just demonstrates that when you have whatever she has inside of her, this will, this fight, this everything.. she can withstand anything. This child is going to have the easiest adulthood because she’s had a tough go of it early on.”
