Hoda Kotb Reveals Why She Chose to Open Up About Daughter’s Diabetes

Hoda Kotb returned to the spotlight in a big way last Wednesday, less than six months after leaving her full-time gig co-hosting NBC’s Today show, as she made two high-profile guest appearances on Today and launched her new wellness platform Joy 101, all as she revealed daughter Hope’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis.

Kotb had previously kept Hope’s specific disease private, simply telling viewers after a two-week absence to deal with the early symptoms of her condition that she had been out for a “family health matter.”

However, in interviews tied to Wednesday’s Joy 101 launch, Kotb revealed that Hope’s condition contributed to her decision to exit the NBC morning show.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter at a red carpet event in New York celebrating the Joy 101 launch, where Kotb was joined by her former Today colleagues, fellow NBCUniversal star Andy Cohen, Lucy Liu, Rachel Platten and CBS Mornings host (and Kotb look-alike) Gayle King, Kotb explained why now was the right time to open up about Hope’s condition.

In fact, Hope’s own nonchalant attitude inspired her to share the truth.

“She has a [continuous glucose monitor] on her arm and people ask me about it in person all the time,” Kotb recalled. “And I didn’t want her to be defined by it, so I didn’t want to bring it up as a thing.”

But one day, Kotb recalled, a girl asked Hope what was on her arm: “[Hope] goes, ‘I just said that’s my diabetes thing. So what?’ And I was like, so what. So that’s it.”

As for Joy 101, Kotb explained why she chose wellness as her next big venture.

“I started trying like breathwork and meditation and nothing had actually changed me like that, and I didn’t know that it actually could do that. I thought if I exercised and ate right, that would be enough,” Kotb said. “But [Today co-host] Jenna Bush Hager introduced me to breathwork. She’s the one that told me to try it. … I thought if I can learn how to do this, it gives me clarity and energy, and Jenna was different after she went, so I started doing that and then Maria Shriver told me about a couple of things to try. And then I became insatiable, like, ‘What’s the next thing? What’s the next thing?’ And now, I find myself on this wellness journey that’s not ending. Because why not get a little better all the time.”

Today‘s Savannah Guthrie, who spent years sitting beside Kotb on the NBC morning show, affirmed her former co-anchor’s dedication to the space.

“She’s been working on this a really long time – not just the app, she’s been working on herself and working on this journey for a long time,” Guthrie said. “A few years ago, and I remember it, she sort of had this shift, and she became a real seeker. And she wanted to do that even though, by anybody’s standards, she’s at the top of the heap. She had it all, and she has it all. Over these years, she’s collected and curated all of these different ways of growing and evolving.

And now she’s bringing it to one-stop shopping for the rest of us. So the things she’s been doing for us for years (‘Hey, I went to this acupuncturist, it’s amazing, you have to go. Hey, I went to this retreat, it changed everything, I really think you want to go.’) now everybody has access to Hoda’s recommendations. And I can tell you, personally, they’re spot on.”

Kotb’s former colleague Dylan Dreyer added of Joy 101, “it’s got Hoda written all over it.”

“Hoda brings the best of everything to everyone around her. She wants to share. She wants to fill you in on the best new thing she’s doing, whether it’s breathing or acupuncture,” Dreyer said. “So she’s collected the best of the best of things she’s considered to have helped her in her life. And she wants to share that, so this is exactly the way she’ll share it with everyone else. It makes so much sense.”

Kotb’s guest appearance during the first two hours and fourth hour of Today on Wednesday was a welcome reunion with her former colleagues.

“She’s joy personified. She’s our sunshine. We just loved having her back,” Guthrie said. “I just saw her a couple of weeks ago, and we’ve all stayed in really close touch. But it was fun to have her on the show, and it was fun to have people out on the plaza get to see her, and we’re just so proud of her. It was like coming home again.”

During her time with Guthrie and Kotb’s replacement, co-anchor Craig Melvin, Kotb was asked about rumors that she could replace Kelly Clarkson as the host of the latter’s eponymous daytime talk show.

She shot those down but said if she were to return to TV it would be on the Today show.

So, is there a world where Kotb would someday return to the small screen full-time? “Never say never,” she said.

“Because life is like that,” she added. “I would never say never because it is the greatest job in the world, but for now, I’m in my happy place.”

Though the first two hours of Today quickly lined up Melvin as Kotb’s successor, Kotb’s chair on the fourth hour of Today, now dubbed Jenna & Friends, remains empty as Bush Hager has been working with a rotating group of guest hosts.

One of those guest hosts has been, and will be for two days this week, longtime Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.

Guthrie and Bush Hager are good friends off camera, and both are open about their close bond. So would Guthrie take after her former Today colleague Kotb and pull double duty full-time in the mornings? Yes and no.

“Oh my gosh of course, I’d sit with her any day of the week, but I don’t think that’s really in the cards,” Guthrie told THR of joining Bush Hager full-time. “I mean I have my job. Anyone [Bush Hager] sits next to is the luckiest person, and it’s a joy to fill in with her, and we’d have a blast, but I don’t think that’s in the cards. I think she’ll find the perfect person that’s just right for the show, but in the meantime, I’m happy to be a Jenna & Friends friend anytime.”