Hoda Kotb is having fun with one of the best years of her life.
The Today present co-anchor, 58, just lately made Forbes’ “50 Over 50” checklist. To mark the milestone, the mom of two sat down with Mika Brzezinski to debate her proudest accomplishments in life up to now — the best of which embrace adopting her two daughters: Haley, 5, and Hope, 3.
“I heard the saying, ‘It gets greater later. It gets greater later.’ And it does. It gets greater in every single aspect of life,” she defined. “If someone told me, ‘Hey guess what? When you’re in your mid-50s you’re gonna be a mom of two and you’ll be hosting the Today show — but you’re going to have to wait until your mid-50s,’ I would have said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ And now that I’m sitting in the middle of this [interview], I can’t believe how blessed I feel. I can’t believe this stage in my life feels like this.”
Although she needed to have youngsters, Kotb stated that when she turned 50 she assumed it simply wasn’t within the playing cards for her.
“It’s like when you have a dream that you cannot fulfill because you know it’s too late, so you don’t say it out loud, because if you say it then you’re presenting something you’re never going to have,” she shared. “Whatever your secret is, say it out loud, even when it is simply to your self within the lavatory mirror, or inform your greatest pal, or inform somebody, as a result of when you say one thing that you simply need and you set it within the universe, in some way it involves you.”
Such was the case with Kotb, who recalled a moment when she and a friend went on a walk. Her friend turned to her and said, “Well, we by no means needed children.” For Kotb, it was a moment that changed everything.
“Mid-sentence, I stated, ‘Well, truly I did,'” she recalled. “She stated, ‘Well you by no means stated that,’ and I stated, ‘Well as a result of I’m 50, so I don’t wish to say it, however I’ve at all times needed them. I’ve at all times kinda dreamt about it.’ Low and behold, the minute I stated it out it into the universe, I began pondering, Why not me?”
In February 2017, Kotb announced on Today that she and then-boyfriend Joel Schiffman adopted a baby daughter, Haley Joy Kotb. Then, two years later, the former couple announced the adoption of a second baby girl, Hope Catherine Kotb.
Although she and Schiffman are no longer together, Kotb has said that they continue to happily co-parent.
“My greatest accomplishment over the age of 50 is having Haley and Hope, without question. Who would have imagined that?” she informed Brzezinski. “As I sit here today, across from you at 58, I know I have never ever in my life been this happy. Never.
“This decade of my life is by far one of the best decade I’ve ever had, and I might by no means have imagined that to have been a risk,” she continued. “I feel there’s one thing about realizing, like, numbers are numbers. And love is love. And you may make issues occur in your life if you’d like it, when you actually need it, it is not an impossibility. It works that method in your private life and it really works that method in your skilled life.”
When it comes to achieving your dreams after 50, Kotb said it’s all about having hope — and the willingness to go to the mat in efforts to achieve your dreams.
“I feel if you’re somebody who’s at all times asking what are the chances? I’ve a sense you might need a troublesome time climbing your mountain,” she said. “If anybody had informed me the chances of getting children after 50 or the chances of internet hosting the Today present in my late-50s, I’m certain somebody with a calculator would have stated, ‘Oh, it’s 7 million to 1. Good luck with that concept.’ But I feel if we do not realize it, we simply go for it. Who’s gonna inform us no?”
Certainly, Kotb has more mountains to climb. Recently, she said that adopting a third child may be in the cards for her.
“It’s undoubtedly within the universe for me,” she told People magazine in August. “I really feel like no matter is supposed to be is supposed to be. But I do know just a few issues. I’ve love and time, and we now have an open house.”
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