Hoda Kotb recalls being shamed for having kids at her age: I felt ‘terrible’
Hoda Kotb revealed this week that she was once mom-shamed by a viewer for choosing to have children later in life.
“I opened the letter and it was something along the lines of ‘how dare you bring a child into this world at your age? Don’t you know what you’re doing to that child?'” the journalist shared on “Today With Hoda & Jenna” Wednesday.
Kotb, 58, said the scathing letter was handwritten and addressed to her home.
The unsuspecting broadcaster said she opened the hateful note because she had previously gotten fan-mail with requests for her to sign a picture and so she thought this could be one of those times.
“It took my breath away because that actually was my ‘ouch,'” Kotb told her co-host Jenna Bush Hager, noting that she herself had struggled with insecurities about being an older mom.
“I was scared, like, ‘Is this something that is smart for me to do, and am I helping or am I ultimately going to be harming?,'” the “Today” co-anchor said she often thought to herself.
Kotb said she was also taken aback by the fact that the individual who wrote her took “care and time and research” in order to send her a letter rather than criticizing her via social media.
However, the mother of two said in times when she was “feeling terrible” about her decision to have kids later in life, she often thought of the cherished time she spent with her father, who passed away while she was in college.
“I remember thinking, ‘We have our parents for a period of time. I know the foundation he left. I know if was worth every second of that time.,'” Kotb concluded.
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After her revelation, fans sent the beloved talk show host messages of encouragement in the comments section of the “Hoda & Jenna” show’s Instagram account.
“Having a parent who lives and cares for them is what matters. No one’s business her or anyone’s age,” one person wrote.
Another added, “I am so very sorry you experienced that Hoda! Your girls are so very blessed to have you as their mom. Don’t ever doubt that.”
In February 2017, Kotb announced that she welcomed her first child, a baby girl named Haley Joy, via adoption. She was 52 at the time.
The former “Dateline” correspondent shared the following month that she and then-boyfriend Joel Schiffman chose to adopt because she had survived breast cancer 10 years prior, and the disease left her unable to conceive.
Two years later, a then-55-year-old Kotb adopted a second daughter, Hope Catherine.
“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,” the TV personality recounted in 2019. “It’s amazing.”
Earlier this year, Kotb was absent from the morning show after 3-year-old Hope was hospitalized.
“You have no idea how much it means to me and my family,” she said of the support she’s received from colleagues and fans when she returned to the show.
