Hoda Kotb never admitted that she wanted children because she thought it was "too late".
Hoda Kotb thought it was too late for her to become a mother
The 58-year-old star - who was married to tennis coach Burzis Kanga from 2005 until 2008 and split from financier Joel Schiffman in 2022 after almost a decade together - adopted daughters Haley Joy, now six, in 2017, and three-year-old Hope two years later but was worried about expressing her desire to become a mother in the first place in case it didn't happen.
Speaking on the 'Just B with Bethenny Frankel' podcast, she said: "I remember never saying out loud that I wanted kids, never, because it was too late.
"For girls that it’s too late for, you don’t say it because if you say it, you’re expressing something that you’re never going to get.
"I filled out all the paperwork and did all the stuff that you do, and they’re like, ‘Okay, maybe a year, maybe six months, maybe five years, bye."
The 'Today' host went on to recall the moment she found out she was going to become a mother and explained that although she does not know what childbirth feels like, imagined her own feelings at that time to be similar.
She tearfully added: "I was sitting there, and I was doing some phone call with some nutritionist about something and babbling on and on.
"My phone beeped, and I looked at it, and it said Ashley, and Ashley was the lady from my adoption agency, and she said, ‘If I ever text you, you need to call me back immediately.
"I saw her name, I hung up the phone, I took a yellow pad out, and I wrote, ’11:55. This is the moment everything changes,’ I knew it.
"And I took a deep breath and dialed the number, and I said, ‘Ashley?’ and she said two words to me.
"She said, ‘She’s here.' I don’t know what birth feels like, and I bet it was amazing, but this was really close.
“I remember that feeling like it was yesterday."
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