Today show co-host Hoda Kotb has returned to the anchor desk, revealing that her absence was due to a health emergency involving her youngest daughter, Hope.
Kotb, who has not appeared live on the program since Feb. 17, held back tears as she shared that her three-year-old daughter had been in the ICU.
“My youngest [daughter], Hope, was in the ICU for a few days and in the hospital for more than a week,” she told co-host Savannah Guthrie at the start of the show.
“I’m so grateful she’s home,” the 58-year-old continued. “We are watching her closely. I am just so happy.”
Kotb went on to thank Hope’s doctors as well as Guthrie “who were there every single day.” She did not detail what had caused her daughter’s medical emergency.
Kotb also appeared in Today’s fourth hour alongside Jenna Bush Hager, where she described her daughter’s ordeal as “really scary.”
“I feel like life is one way on a Monday... and then Tuesday rolls around and something hits pretty hard and you realize that Monday was actually pretty awesome,” she said. “It was really scary, but she is vibrant and brilliant and she’s home.”
She said that Hope lived up to her name and even inspired her to remain positive.
“The other day, she just got up from bed, and she was so sweet and cute, and she wasn’t feeling great. She had in her hand two little confetti stars. And I looked at her, 'cause I just got out of the shower, so I turned, and she was sitting there. And she said, ‘I got two, Mom. One for me and one for you.’”
“And I thought to myself, ‘This child, even when she’s not feeling good, she still giving everything away,’” Kotb said.
“I feel blessed and grateful, really, really, really grateful. And also anyone who’s ever gone through an illness with a child, boy, I thought I understood you. But I didn’t. You don’t until you’re sitting in that position. So for every single person going through some stuff, I get it.”
Fans had expressed concern about Kotb’s unexplained absence, forcing Craig Melvin to tell Today viewers last week that the beloved co-host had a “family health matter.”
“We know a lot of you have been wondering how she’s doing,” Melvin said on March 1. “We can tell you that Hoda is OK, [but] she’s got a family health matter that she’s been dealing with.”
