On Tuesday, Hoda Kotb shocked everyone by announcing she adopted a new baby girl named Hope Catherine.
“It’s a girl! It’s a girl,” Kotb, 54, said calling into “Today” on Tuesday morning. “I can’t believe that I’m here! I’m so happy to be here.”
“You think that you’re full… and Joel [Schiffman] and I were standing there when they hand you the baby and it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a live birth,” she recounted. “It’s amazing. I can’t believe it’s happening!”
Kotb also said Schiffman, 61, rarely cries but he broke into tears the moment he met his new daughter.
“I can’t imagine any of this happening,” Kotb expressed. “We hoped and prayed about this.”
Hope’s middle name comes from Kotb’s best friend’s daughter.
As for Kotb and Schiffman’s 2-year-old daughter, Haley Joy, she’s loving being a big sister.
Kotb said Haley’s been trying to feed the baby and has proudly been announcing she’s a big sister.
While the news was a shock, Kotb may have been hinting at it all along.
On Monday she cryptically posted a message to Instagram saying, “Choose Hope.”
When Kotb chose to adopt Haley in 2017, she simply said, “One of the things in my life I’ve always wanted was to be a mom.”