Hoda Kotb is known for her radiant smile, her contagious laugh, and her ability to bring light into the living rooms of millions every morning. But behind the uplifting energy she shares on Today, there’s a chapter of her life filled with fear, grief, and an unexpected loss that reshaped her entire future.

On a recent episode of her Making Space podcast, Kotb reflected on the moment that left an imprint no chemotherapy or surgery could ever remove: the moment she learned she might never become a mother.

She was in her early 40s, already dealing with the weight of a breast cancer diagnosis, when her doctor delivered the news — treatment would likely leave her unable to have biological children.

“I remember sitting there thinking, ‘Wait… what?’” Kotb recalled, still visibly affected by the memory. “This thing not only put limits on my life — it killed a dream.”

Up until that point, she had been battling for her health, focused on survival. But when she heard the words “you won’t be able to have children,” it cracked something deeper — a future she always imagined disappeared in a single breath.

Kotb often shares pieces of her personal journey, but this story is one she described as particularly painful. She explained that while the diagnosis didn’t take her life, it took away the hope she had quietly held onto.

“My life felt like it was shrinking,” she said. “All these painful things were happening at once — physically, emotionally, personally. I was at a really low point.”

Not long after her treatment, Kotb went through a divorce from her then-husband Burzis Kanga. She was grieving a marriage, grieving her health, and grieving motherhood — all at the same time.

But then came a shift. One morning, she woke up with what she described as a bolt of clarity.

“You can’t scare me,” she told herself. “The worst has already happened.”

It was a turning point — a reclaiming of the power cancer tried to take.

That realization, she said, “released” her. Instead of fearing the future, she decided to build one. Instead of shutting down, she opened her heart.

Years later, a different path to motherhood revealed itself — one she hadn’t expected, but one that brought her overwhelming joy.

In 2017, Kotb adopted her first daughter, Haley. She had waited so long for this moment that it barely felt real.

“The second she was placed in my arms,” Kotb said, tearing up, “I knew she was the love of my life.”

Two years later, Hope joined their family, completing the circle she once believed was broken.

Through adoption, Kotb discovered that family is not made by biology — but by love, patience, and the courage to hope again.

Kotb has been open about the evolution of her personal life. She spent nearly a decade with Joel Schiffman, who stood beside her when she became a mother. The couple got engaged in 2019 but quietly called things off in early 2022.

Though their romantic relationship ended, Kotb shared that she is still grateful for the love and support that helped her step into motherhood with confidence.

“I want my girls to have a voice,” she told Us Weekly. “To say what they need. To not feel like they have to shrink themselves to fit someone else’s expectations.”

It’s a lesson Kotb didn’t fully learn until after cancer forced her to ask bigger questions about her life — what she wanted, what she deserved, and what she would no longer fear.

Kotb says the hardest part about the cancer years wasn’t the diagnosis, or even the treatment — it was learning that women often wait until something traumatic happens before they start fighting for their happiness.

“We shouldn’t need a terrible moment to realize we deserve joy,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to face death to ask for what we want.”

That message is now the heart of her storytelling — whether through her books, her podcast, or her candid conversations on Today. She hopes others won’t wait as long as she did to give themselves permission to dream bigger.

Now at 60, Kotb feels more fulfilled than she ever imagined. She’s raising two bold and brilliant daughters, showing them daily what resilience looks like. She’s coanchoring one of America’s most beloved morning shows. And she’s opening doors for countless others by being unafraid to tell the truth about her journey.

Her story reminds us that some of the greatest gifts arrive after we believe they’re no longer possible. And sometimes the dreams that seem to disappear are simply waiting for us to grow into them.

Kotb’s message for anyone facing their own impossible moment?

“You can’t scare me anymore,” she says with a smile. “I already survived the hardest part. And now — I’m free.”