The Tuesday, September 3 episode of the Today show was missing a familiar, happy face: Where was Hoda Kotb?
Kotb's coanchor, Savannah Guthrie, explained her costar's absence and revealed what the fan-favorite journalist was doing instead.
"Hi everybody, good morning. Welcome to Today. So nice to have you with us on a Tuesday morning," Guthrie, 52, addressed the viewers at home on the day after Labor Day, per multiple outlets. "Hoda is off. This is the first day of school for her girls, so she's holding it down with them."
Guthrie also noted that Kotb's absence on Tuesday's episode was an extension of her break last week, per Us Weekly, during which the journalist soaked up the final days of summer with her young daughters and helped them prepare for the start of a new school year. (Guthrie, for her part, was also absent from Today last week to spend time with her own family.)
Kotb, 60, is the proud mom of daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, whom she shares with ex-fiance Joel Schiffman. The then-couple adopted Haley in 2017 and adopted Hope two years later. The TV personality announced her split from Schiffman in January 2022.
Kotb recently revealed that she relocated with her daughters to a new home in a new town — where they'd be starting a brand-new school year in a new school.
"It's all new — new kids, new school, new things, new everything," Kotb shared on an August episode of Hoda and Jenna. "And it's funny because all I could think of was I want my house for the kids to feel warm and cozy and a place where they want to hang. And that's it."
Fans will remember that Kotb previously took time off from Today in February 2023 when her younger daughter had a health scare that left her in the ICU for days and in the hospital for more than a week. Kotb was absent from the show for two weeks to care for Hope.
"We had a scary stretch. Any parent who's been through a scary thing with their child understands," Kotb recalled to People earlier this year.
Now, Kotb said, she knows Hope is able to tackle anything after the health scare she went through in 2023.
"I look at her, and I think, 'Wow, you blossomed into this incredible kid who is so resilient and well-equipped for her whole life despite this stuff that has happened to her,' " the beloved Today anchor shared. "She just demonstrates that when you have whatever she has inside of her, this will, this fight, this everything . . . she can withstand anything. This child is going to have the easiest adulthood because she's had a tough go of it early on."
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