News January 31, 2022
‘Today’ Show Host Hoda Kotb Announces Broken Engagement
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Hoda Kotb has announced her split from fiancé Joel Schiffman.
Monday on “Today with Hoda & Jenna,” the morning show host shared the news, noting that some viewers have questioned why she hasn’t been wearing her engagement ring.
“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 [as such],” the journalist said.
Despite their split, Kotb said she and Schiffman will remain friends and co-parents to their “adorable, delightful children”: daughters Hope, 2, and Haley, 4.
Kotb also noted that no specific event triggered their breakup, it’s that “they say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, or a season or for a lifetime. And I feel like ours was meant to be there for a season.”
Overall, Kotb is grateful for the “joyous moments” she shared with Schiffman.
“He’s a great guy. He’s a very kind and loving person, and I feel privileged to have spent eight years with him. We are both good and we are both kind of going on our way and our path. We’ll be good parents to those two lovely kids.”
Hoda says her engagement has been called off. “We decided we are better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple,” she says. pic.twitter.com/zOJrvhE6wZ
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) January 31, 2022 @HodaAndJenna
After the reveal, Kotb’s co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager told her that she “can’t think of anybody stronger” or more “courageous,” than Kotb “to tell the truth” about her relationship.
“There’s nothing that relieves your soul more, I think, than when you tell the truth,” Kotb replied.
“You always say it’s how we begin something and how we end it,” Bush Hager added.
Kotb and Schiffman began dating for a couple of years before going public with their relationship in 2015.
In November 2019, Schiffman popped the question while they were enjoying an intimate dinner by the beach.
Though they originally planned to get married in November 2020, Kotb said last summer that she and Schiffman were “just trying to make sure that everyone can travel” to their wedding, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We want to do it in a place that we love deep in our soul that means a lot to us, and we want our closest to come,” Kotb explained on “Today.” “But Joel kept saying, ‘Why are we waiting? Let’s just go already.’”
