Hoda Kotb Reveals How Daughter, 3, Is Doing 9 Weeks After Hospitalization: She’s ‘Strong’

The ‘Today’ host opened up about how frightening it was to watch her daughter go through her health scare in a new interview.

Hoda Kotb spoke about how strong her three-year-old daughter Hope is after her hospitalization in a new interview on Southern Living’s Biscuits And Gravy podcast, released on Tuesday, April 25. The beloved anchor, 58, admitted that Hope was “getting better” just over two months after she first entered the hospital, leading to her missing two weeks of shows for Today. 

After revealing that her daughter was starting to feel better, she also shared a sweet story about something that Hope told her while she was in the hospital. “Hope said, ‘You know, I think God put me here to teach people things,’” she admitted. “I said, ‘What? What? What?’ She said, ‘Yeah, because my brain’s pretty big, so I think I’m supposed to teach people things.’”

While the hospitalization was undoubtedly scary, Hoda did say that she learned so much while seeing how her daughter went through treatment. “To watch her go through a difficult time at just three years old is really tough for any parent because you’re helpless,” she said. “But I think you realize just how incredibly resilient and strong she is. I think sometimes you learn life’s lessons from the most amazing places.”

Hoda was absent for two weeks from Today while her daughter was sick with an unspecified health issue. During her absence, her co-hosts simply said she was out to attend to a “family health matter,” but when she returned, she revealed that her younger daughter had been hospitalized and had been kept in the ICU.

When Hoda returned, she opened up about Hope being in the hospital and got emotional as she thanked the doctors who treated her. “I’m grateful she’s home. She is back home. I was waiting for that day to come. We are watching her closely. I’m just so happy,” she said. “I realized, too, when your child is ill, the amount of gratitude you can have for people who helped you out. I’m grateful for the doctors at Weil Cornell, who were amazing, and the nurses. And I’m grateful to my family and friends like you who were there every single day. So I want to say thank you for that. I love you.”