Hoda Kotb Shares First Photo After Adopting Second Baby Girl, Hope Catherine
Hoda Kotb is a mom again! The popular Today anchor announced the exciting news that she’d adopted a second baby girl named Hope Catherine on the NBC morning show on April 16. She opted to share the first photo of her baby girl via Today’s official Instagram account, which showed her cradling little Hope alongside her big sister, Haley Joy.
The adorable snap showed 54-year-old Hoda smiling from ear to ear with Hope in her arms while 2-year-old Haley – who the news anchor adopted with boyfriend Joel Schiffman back in 2017 – smiled for the camera with an adorable lilac bow in her hair.
Kotb first teased the new addition to her family on her Instagram page on April 15. She kept things pretty cryptic at the time, sharing an upload with her 1.2 million followers on the social media site that showed the words “Choose Hope” written in a sky full of clouds.
Per Today, the star announced the exciting news in a phone call to the studio where she became emotional while telling her colleagues that she was feeding little Hope as she spoke to them.
“I can’t believe it,” Hoda said while confirming the arrival of her newest family member, noting that her boyfriend Joel is also baby Hope’s dad. “I’m so happy she’s here!”
“You think that you’re full. That’s exactly how I felt with Haley and Joel and everything,” she continued.
“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.'”
“It’s amazing. I can’t believe it’s happening,” the mom of two then added of her second adoption.
Kotb has shared a number of sweet moments with little Haley since first becoming a mom back in 2017.
The Inquisitr reported that the little girl was seen following in her famous mom’s footsteps back in October as she appeared on the morning show and even threw out a segment to Al Roker in a seriously adorable moment as Today celebrated The Day of the Girl.
Previously speaking of her journey to motherhood in a very candid interview, Hoda told People that at one point in time she thought she’d never become a mom after a battle with breast cancer left her unable to conceive a child, though being a parent is something she’d always wanted.
“One of the things in my life I’ve always wanted was to be a mom,” Kotb said at the time. “Sometimes in your life, things just don’t work out for whatever reason, so you say, ‘Well, I wasn’t meant to have that.'”
Hoda then added that the possibility of never having children was “really hard” for her to come to terms with before she decided to explore the possibility of adoption.
