TODAY Show host Hoda Kotb has shared a heart-filled update on her 4-year-old daughter Hope’s medical crisis in an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun.
The U.S. Sun chatted with Hoda as she attended the Hudson River Park’s 8th Annual Playground Committee Luncheon, which raised funds for the recreational privately owned park spanning the West Side of New York City.
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Hoda is the adoptive mother of two girls: Haley Joy, 7, and Hope Catherine, 4, whom she shares with her ex-fiancé, Joel Schiffman, 65.
Last year, Hoda revealed Hope suffered a terrifying health scare that landed the little one in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for nearly a week.
Now, Hoda has a new, grateful, and grounding perspective on the incident.
She told The U.S. Sun, “It was a scary time. I’m learning a lot about myself.”
Hoda elaborated, “I’m learning my daughters are stronger than I ever imagined; I’m learning my capacity to love her has grown; I learned my older daughter is a better big sister than I could have ever imagined, and I also learned not to put my worry on her.”
The Today host said, “Kids are little and they don’t need scary-eyed mom looking at them like, ‘Are you OK?'”
She concluded, “So I try really hard not to put my worry on her – but Hope is doing well.”
SCARY TIMES
Last year, Hoda told viewers, “My youngest daughter Hope was in the ICU for a few days and in the hospital for a little more than a week and I’m so grateful she’s home.
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“She is back home and I’ve been waiting for that day to come and we are watching her closely.”
“I realize when your child is ill, the amount of gratitude you can have for people for who helped you out…” Hoda continued.
“I’m grateful for the doctors at Weill Cornell who are amazing and the nurses and I’m grateful to my family and friends like you who were there every single day.”
HOPE IS A RAINBOW
Hoda has found a positive, creative outlet to channel her experience into with her latest book, Hope is a Rainbow.
The illustrated book is based on Hope and is the fourth children’s book Hoda has written.
When she first announced the book on Today, Hoda said, “My daughter Hope is so inspiring to me.
“She’s a little child, but with a real kind of old spirit, an old soul.
“There’s something about her in how she sees magic in everything,” she concluded.
Hoda explained Hope has loved rainbows since she was a baby and shared that hope “is a feeling.”
GROWING ROOTS
While talking with The U.S. Sun at the Hudson River Park fundraiser, Hoda teased her upcoming project as she plans to release her next book.
She hinted, “Life is about re-potting – I’ve re-potted so many times in my life, going through a job or starting a family.
“You pull yourself up by the roots and you worry like, ‘Am I going to be OK?’ And then you put your roots back down in fertile ground and grow more than you thought.”
The popular host concluded, “So there’s a book about trying something – a family, a business, whatever it is – so, that’s probably my next project.”
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