Hoda Kotb Opens Up About New Motherhood as Cancer Left Her Unable to Conceive

Blogged by @hshtgmike

Today Show co-anchor, Hoda Kotb, appears on the cover of People Magazine with newly adopted daughter, Haley Joy, on stands Friday. In the issue, she discusses life with her newborn daughter, after cancer left her unable to conceive. 

“It’s one of those things where you think you’ve done it all, you think you’ve felt it all,” she says, “But I just didn’t know that this kind of love existed.”

Motherhood had been a lifelong wish for Kotb, but she was forced to give up her dreams after battling breast cancer a decade ago.

“One of the things in my life I’ve always wanted was to be a mom,” the 52-year old tells People, “Sometimes in your life, things just don’t work out for whatever reason, so you say, ‘Well, I wasn’t meant to have that.’ But it was really hard to come to terms with it.”

With her contagious smile and bubbly personality, Kotb appeared to be pushing through it while still appearing on TODAY  but privately felt like there was something missing from her life. There was even a point where the co-host considered abandoning broadcast altogether to become a teacher or another job involving children.

“One of the reasons was because I couldn’t have children,” she explains, “Finally I said to myself one day, ‘Why can’t I? Why not me?’ I had this ache in me that I couldn’t push away anymore.”

So, she brought the option of adoption to her longtime boyfriend, New York financier Joel Schiffman.

“I said, ‘Think about it for a day or a week or whatever.’ And he said, ‘I don’t need a day. Let’s get this journey going,’” she tells the magazine, “At that point, I blubbered like a baby. It was like the dam burst.”

Kotb worked with a licensed New York adoption agency, and within a matter of months, finalized the adoption of Haley Joy, who was born on Valentine’s Day.

“I wake up sometimes and go, ‘Oh my God, I have a baby!’”, She laughs, “But it feels totally real. I guess if you’ve been waiting this long for something, and you wish for it, pray for it, hope for it, wonder if it will ever be, and then it happens, nothing’s more real. Nothing.”

View the full story at People Magazine.