What To Know
- Hoda Kotb filled in for Sheinelle Jones on the November 9 episode of Today With Jenna & Sheinelle.
- Jenna Bush Hager asked Kotb to share an update on the mystery man she met on a plane earlier this year.
- Kotb shared her hopes for her love life and explained why she has turned down recent date offers.
Jenna Bush Hager used Hoda Kotb‘s Today return to get an update on her former co-host’s love life.
Kotb returned to the NBC morning show on Monday, November 9, filling in for Sheinelle Jones on Today With Jenna & Sheinelle. At the top of the episode, Kotb told Bush Hager that she is “going to speak more directly in my life now,” explaining, “All of this namby-pamby stuff, like, ‘I’m trying, I’m thinking about, I wonder if, sorry,’ isn’t working for me. I just want to say what the thing is and then get a response.”
Kotb praised Bush Hager for being direct with people. Bush Hager used the compliment to inquire about Kotb’s romantic prospects, asking, “Should we start right now? Tell me about that cute boy you met on a plane. Be straight up, be straight up. You said you were gonna be straight up.”
During an August episode of Jenna & Sheinelle, Kotb revealed that she formed “the weirdest connection in the world” with a man she met on a flight. “Fast forward, our company went to Cannes so we could talk about our company, and he was in the audience, randomly,” she shared at the time. “And he goes, ‘Hi,’ and I said, ‘Hi.’ But then, it all kind of just went away.”
On Monday, Kotb says she is hopeful for the future of her love life. “I believe that as I am going through life, that there is going to be a person who shares more than just the things that mattered to me when I was younger,” she stated. “I want someone with a deep spiritual connection, a deep emotional connection. I think that’s coming, and I think I have to take risks to get it.”
Courtesy of Hoda Kotb/Instagram
Kotb told Bush Hager that she has remained in contact with the man from the plane via text. Not only that, but the man has asked her out multiple times since they met. “I haven’t, and I’ll tell you why I haven’t,” she explained. “One, probably I’m scared. Two, I think I like a flirt that you don’t know what it is, but it might be something. And sometimes, once you know it isn’t something, then it’s not so fun anymore. So, I think I’m sort of just keeping it as a thing.”
Despite turning down the dates. Kotb said, “I believe the love part of my life is a piece that’s coming. I don’t go, ‘Oh, well! That’s that.’”
Bush Hager responded to Kotb’s revelation with some romantic advice. “The next time he asks, you gotta go,” she said. “The next time [he] asks, you gotta go, ‘cause my friend is brave and does things that scare her. So, I want you to go on that coffee date.”
Kotb confirmed that she “will go on the coffee date” before she and Bush Hager began to tear up. “We have to cry within 30 minutes, otherwise it’s not us,” Bush Hager joked.
Kotb was previously married to Burzis Kanga from 2005 to 2008. She and Joel Schiffman quietly dated for two years before making their relationship public in 2015. The pair adopted their daughters Haley and Hope in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Schiffman popped the question in 2019.
A few years later, Kotb announced that she and Schiffman separated over the holidays during a January 2022 episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna. “They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, for a season, or for a lifetime, and I feel like ours was meant to be there for a season,” she shared at the time.
Today With Jenna & Sheinelle, Weekdays, 10 am, NBC
