Hoda Kotb tearfully reflects on motherhood during 60th birthday bash on 'Today' show
"Today" was all about Hoda Kotb's 60th birthday.
The NBC morning show – and, later, daytime talk show "Today with Hoda & Jenna" – celebrated its co-anchor's milestone Monday morning with celebrity appearances, emotional tributes and a performance by Kotb's favorite bands.
Over the course of the morning, the birthday surprises (and tears) were nonstop. Sandra Bullock employed both humor and heart in a recorded message for her "sweet friend," Kotb's favorite musicians Sugarland and Little Big Town sang together to promote their upcoming tour and Jenna Bush Hager presented Kotb with an illustration of her and her daughters that was painted by former President George W. Bush.
Kotb, who just returned to the U.S. from covering the 2024 Olympics in Paris, turned 60 on Aug. 9.
As she and Hager celebrated out on the Citi Concert Series stage, Kotb reflected on becoming a first-time mom in the past decade as her daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, cheered from the crowd.
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"I remember, vividly, turning 50 and saying to myself: 'This life that you have is great and don't ask for more because you're deserving of only what you have and nothing beyond.' And I remember wondering if I was worthy of being a mother," Kotb said. "I wondered that, and one day I just decided that maybe it's OK to say the words out loud: 'I wish that I could be a mom.'
"I said it at 50, and I thought I was speaking it out into the air, but what I was doing was I was speaking it out into the universe. And then all of a sudden, things started happening," she continued.
"And lo and behold in my 50s, I've got Haley Joy Kotb, who's over there, and then I got Hope Catherine Kotb who's right there. And I realized that sometimes we think that our blessings have passed us by, but no. They're coming."
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Hoda Kotb promises blessings will come 'right on time'
On Monday's "Today" show, several people whose lives Kotb impacted over the years came to the studio to surprise the journalist.
The special guests who filed into the studio were Devon Still and his daughter Leah, who was diagnosed with — and survived — neuroblastoma at age 4; Bart Conley, whose wife Jill Brzezinski-Conley died at 38 in 2016, following a long-fought battle against cancer; and Frank and Stacy Parrado, who learned through Kotb in 2018 that they would be adopting daughter Addison.
Kotb warmly embraced each of them, and they explained the positive impact she made during difficult times in their lives.
"This is your legacy, though: People. All the people who get to know you and love you," Savannah Guthrie said.
Later, as the co-hosts gave a toast to Kotb with Sugarland and Little Big Town, the 60-year-old took a moment to share some inspiring words.
"I just want to say, if you are in your 40s, 50s, 60s or beyond and you wonder, 'When are my blessings coming?' They're coming, y'all!" Kotb said. "And when they come, they are going to be, as we like to say, right on time."
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