Is Hoda Kotb Adopting Another Child?
Hoda Kotb used to think that becoming a mother was not in the cards for her, until she adopted her daughter Haley Joy in 2017 — when the television host was 52 years old. "I feel like if you're meant to have a child in your life, your child is out there,” Kotb said in 2018, a year after the adoption, per Today. The former "Dateline NBC" host revealed that she used to keep a journal when she and fiance Joel Schiffman were looking to adopt. "I could feel her," Kotb recalled. Welcoming Haley Joy into the family had a profound impact on Kotb's life. "It's changed mine completely,” she revealed.
By 2019, Kotb adopted a second daughter, Catherine, but the television host wanted to expand her family even further. "I was sitting with Joel ... I said to him, 'We have a lot of love in this house do we have space for more love? Yes, we do,'" she said while appearing on "The Drew Barrymore Show" in late 2020 (via Hello!). Kotb revealed to the host that she and Schiffman had begun the process of adopting a third child. "We filled out the paperwork and said it's in god's hands now," she added.
Later, Kotb admitted that she got caught up in the heat of the moment, and accidentally spilled the beans about trying to adopt another kid. Did Kotb once again let the cat out of the bag in an Instagram post? Keep reading to find out if a third kid is on the way.
Hoda Kotb's Instagram latest post had fans buzzing
Fans thought Hoda Kotb was sending a subtle update about her adoption process when she posted photos of her daughters to Instagram on September 27. In the four-photo post, Haley Joy and Catherine wore matching t-shirts that had "I'm the Big Sister" printed across the bottom which seemed to suggest a younger sibling was coming.
According to Kotb, this was not a clever way to announce a third child. "The t-shirts were not a sign," she told Kay Adams while appearing on "People (The TV Show)" (via People). The matching tees were just a result of the television host's haphazard shopping style. She explained, "I buy everything on Amazon, I just hit 'get two,' so I got two. I was like, 'Oh, they both say big sister. Okay!'" As previously confirmed, the "Today" host did admit that she and fiance Joel Schiffman still wanted to add to their brood. "If it comes, it comes. So we just wait patiently," she added.
According to Kotb, the pandemic slowed the adoption process to a crawl. "You know what's funny about the adoption stuff that's going on now, apparently it's really slow during this time, during COVID," she said while appearing on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" in July (via Today). Kotb's agency told her that people had been less willing to put up their children for adoption during the pandemic "because they don't have anything in that moment."