A special surprise! Hoda Kotb is engaged to her boyfriend, Joel Schiffman, after six years together.
“I have to tell you something. A friend of mine, a friend of ours, asked me to let you guys in on a secret,” the Today show anchor, 55, told her cohosts on the Monday, November 25, episode. “I’ll give you her initials. Her initials are Hoda Kotb, and she’s engaged.”
Congrats to our @hodakotb! She’s engaged! pic.twitter.com/1Yy3oN5DfR
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 25, 2019
Kotb then held up her left hand and showed off her stunning engagement ring. She revealed that she had hidden it from the NBC morning show’s team and secretly slipped it on right before announcing the news.
Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Jenna Bush Hager and Craig Melvin were beyond overjoyed by Kotb’s announcement, with Guthrie, 47, repeatedly shouting, “What?!”
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The broadcast journalist explained that Schiffman, 61, proposed as they had dinner on the beach during a tropical vacation over the weekend.
“He was like, ‘I have something else I would like to say,’ and he said some beautiful things and then he got down on one knee,” she said. “Then he said, ‘Would you be my wife?’ … I was totally shocked. He had a good poker face.”
The couple have been together since June 2013. Today With Hoda & Jenna executive producer Joanne LaMarca Mathisen helped set up their first date.
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Kotb and the financier adopted daughters Haley Joy and Hope Catherine in February 2017 and this April, respectively. She said on Monday that they are “still trying to figure out” how to tell the girls about their engagement.
“I’m going to be with Joel until my last breath,” the former Dateline NBC correspondent said on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in September 2018. “I know that.”
Kotb was previously married to Burzis Kanga from 2005 to 2008.
