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This morning, TODAY show co-anchor Hoda Kotb announced that she's a mom again. No, the 54-year-old wasn't pregnant-she spoke to People in 2017 about how breast cancer treatment left her unable to conceive-but rather, she adopted for the second time. Hoda's new baby, Hope Catherine, joins the family two years after the anchor adopted her first daughter Haley Joy, in 2017.
"You know what's funny? You think that you're full,'' Hoda said on TODAY , describing her life with her first daughter and boyfriend Joel Schiffman. "That's exactly how I felt with Haley and Joel and everything. Joel and I were standing there when they hand you the baby, and it's the closest thing to a live birth you'll ever see, but in that moment I was like, 'Oh my God, my heart just grew.'"
Meanwhile, Haley Joy is super excited to have a sister.
"This morning at breakfast [Haley] was trying to feed [Hope] her raspberries and I was like, 'Not yet, babe,''' Hoda joked on the show, according to TODAY . "She was literally marching around saying, 'I'm a big sister!'''
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Hoda teased the big news while promoting her new book, You Are My Happy, a story based on her and Haley Joy's bedtime routine. "We don't know when, but it is something that is important to me and to Joel," she told ET . "We like the idea of Haley [having] a sibling because she has had such interesting circumstances to grow up."
She also (sort of) posted the news on Instagram yesterday.
View this post on Instagram Happy Monday xx A post shared by Hoda Kotb (@hodakotb) on Apr 15, 2019 at 2:43am PDT
"I'm feeding her and I can't believe it,'' Hoda said while phoning into TODAY. "I'm so happy she's here!" And her fellow TODAY anchors were just as happy for her and her growing family. "They were straight-up crying as they Facetimed with her and heard the news. It was very emotional," Liz Plosser, Editor in Chief of Women's Health, who was on TODAY this morning and witnessed the sweet moment, says.
Hoda has been a huge proponent of adoption ever since Haley Joy entered her life. "I feel like if you're meant to have a child in your life, your child is out there,'' she said on TODAY during World Adoption Day in 2018. "They said to me at the adoption agency, 'Don't worry, your child is out there waiting for you.' And I remember I would scribble in my journal, 'I know you're there.' I could feel her."
Congratulations, Hoda!