Hoda Kotb‘s wedding to fiancé Joel Schiffman is off. The TV journalist, 57, announced on Monday (Jan. 31) that after eight years together, she and Joel, 63, have broken up. “Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we are better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple, so we decided that we are going to start this new year on our new path as loving parents to our adorably delightful children and as friends,” Hoda said on the third hour of Today.
“Its not like something happened,” she added. “They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, or for a season or a lifetime. And I feel like ours was meant to be there for a season.
Hoda says her engagement has been called off. “We decided we are better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple,” she says. pic.twitter.com/zOJrvhE6wZ
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) January 31, 2022
Hoda, who got engaged to Joel in Nov. 2019, six years after they started dating, said that announcing the breakup news was “weird and awkward.” She went on to say, “I was really struggling with this. I was like, ‘What do I say? How do I say it?’ But I feel like often we share the joyous pieces of our lives. The engagement, and all the fun and the whole island thing. And then I shared the adoption of my children and all the joy and all the beautiful parts. And then the difficult parts sometimes you want to forget about. You want to erase them, because that’s not part of a pretty picture. But I think a lot of women know what this feels like in this moment, to be changing course in life. But I feel really brave in this moment, I really do. Which is sort of a strange feeling to feel. But sometimes in your life, you just have to say the truth.”
Hoda then admitted to co-host Jenna Bush Hager that she “feels better” about confessing the status of her engagement. “There’s nothing that relieves your soul more than when you tell the truth,” she said. Hoda also called Joel “a great guy” and “very kind and loving person.” She added, “I feel privileged to have spent 8 years with him. We are both good and we are going on our way and on our path. And we will be good parents to those two lovely kids.”
Through his relationship with Hoda, Joel became the father to her adopted daughters Haley, 4, and Hope, 2. Joel works and finance and met Hoda at an event in 2013. During her appearance on The Wendy Williams Show in March 2019, Hoda shared that she “knew I’d chosen the right man,” when she asked Joel about adoption.