Jenna Bush Hager will be the new co-host of 'Today's' fourth hour alongside Hoda Kotb
Jenna Bush Hager will be the new co-host of 'Today's' Fourth Hour alongside Hoda Kotb beginning in April, when Kathie Lee Gifford leaves the morning show.
Hoda Kotb's family has grown.
The "Today" show co-anchor revealed she adopted a second child.
In a telephone call on Tuesday, the 54-year-old told her morning show colleagues that she has adopted a baby girl. Hope Catherine joins 2-year-old sister Haley Joy.
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Kotb adopted Haley Joy in 2017.
Kotb says Haley is marching around saying "I'm a big sister." She says Haley wanted to feed Hope raspberries for breakfast.
"This morning at breakfast [Haley] was trying to feed [the new baby] her raspberries and I was like, 'Not yet, babe,''' Kotb shared. "She was literally marching around saying, 'I'm a big sister.'''
"Today" shared a picture of Kotb with her two daughters on Instagram. "Congratulations are in order for @hodakotb, who adopted a second little girl, Hope Catherine, this week," the caption read.
When Kotb's new co-host Jenna Bush Hager asked how "life with two" children is going, Kotb replied, "Oh, my gosh, you guys. She is laying on the Boppy pillow right now, I'm feeding her and I can't believe it."
She added, "Look — in life you think maybe you’ve gotten what you deserve, but, man, I’m so happy she is here."
Kotb shared that both she and her longtime boyfriend, Joel Schiffman, were present when Hope was born.
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"Joel and I were standing there when they hand you the baby," Kotb said. "And it's the closest thing to a live birth I think you'll ever see. In that moment ... my heart just grew 10 times. It’s amazing.
"I just can't believe it's happening, y'all. I can't.”
Shortly after the adoption of Kotb's first daughter, Haley, she opened up about her difficult journey to motherhood.
A battle with breast cancer 10 years ago left her unable to conceive and her two-year marriage to tennis coach Burzis Kanga fell apart a year after her recovery. The news anchor had all but given up on having a child.
"One of the things in my life I've always wanted was to be a mom," Kotb told People in 2017. "Sometimes in your life, things just don't work out for whatever reason, so you say, 'Well, I wasn't meant to have that.' But it was really hard to come to terms with it."
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But then one day, Kotb decided she was going to be a mother.
"Finally I said to myself one day, 'Why can’t I? Why not me?'"
So the NBC journalist asked her boyfriend if he was open to adopting a baby.
"I was afraid to even say it out loud, because then it felt so real," Kotb said. "I said, 'Think about it for a day or a week or whatever.' And he said, 'I don't need a day. Let's get this journey going.'"
Kotb finally brought her newborn daughter home in February 2017. Haley Joy was born on Valentine's Day.
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“I wake up sometimes and go, ‘Oh my God, I have a baby!’ ” she told the magazine. “But it feels totally real. I guess if you’ve been waiting this long for something, and you wish for it, pray for it, hope for it, wonder if it will ever be, and then it happens, nothing’s more real. Nothing.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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