Hoda Kotb with her daughters Haley and Hope.Photo:Hoda Kotb/Instagram
Hoda Kotb/Instagram
Hoda Kotbis getting candid about motherhood.
On Thursday’s episode ofToday with Hoda & Jenna, Kotb, 59, opened up about her parentingjourneyas she discussedSienna Miller’s recentVogueinterview in which she spoke aboutbeing pregnant aged 41.
Kotb — who welcomed her first child at 52 — is mom to daughtersHope, 4, and Haley, 6. She adopted her daughters with her ex-fiancéJoel Schiffman, from whom shesplit in January 2022.
Hoda Kotb celebrates Halloween with her daughters Haley and Hope.Hoda Kotb/Instagram
But the television host went on to share that she has never felt the need to do the same when it comes to her own situation.
“I am so happy and fulfilled with my decision that I don’t feel any ounce of shame,” she said.
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on ‘Today with Hoda & Jenna’.Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
“I love that you’re totally secure in it,” Bush Hager, 42, continued to her co-host, who called her daughters “the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
“I got a physical letter in the mail … from a woman who wrote, ‘Who do you think you are, having kids at that age?’ I literally read it and thought, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe someone put a stamp on it and sent it.’ "
The ‘Today with Hoda & Jenna’ co-host with her daughters.Hoda Kotb /Instagram
Revealing she “literally tore it up,” Kotb added that she “felt horrible in that moment, because there is something that bothers you inside about that.”
“But then I thought, ‘Who would take a piece of paper and a pen and write that and fold it and put it in the envelope with a stamp and go to the trouble of mailing it?’ It took effort,” she continued.
However, Kotb confessed last year that it was"scary" to think about “how much time"she has with her young daughters.
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“As an older mom, I think there are a lot of beautiful parts and challenges too,” she said during an episode ofToday with Hoda & Jenna. “I see all the good parts about being an older mom. Like, I’m in my own skin, I know who I am, I’ve got much more patience and love and all that stuff. But along with that also comes the fact that you’re an older mother.”
Kotb then admitted that people have come up to her when she’s been with her girls and said, “‘Wait, you’re the mother?’ And it gives you this pause for a second. And your kids look around like, ‘Huh? What are you talking about?’ It’s a tough thing to do,” she continued.
“I remember thinking, ‘Why does that bother me? I’m not embarrassed to be my age. I’m happy at my age. It’s the perfect storm of my life. Two kids, this time, this job.’ Someone was saying, ‘It gets greatest later’ — it does get greater later, but in between, there are these moments that you feel an ‘Ouch’, " she said.
source: people.com
