Hoda Kotb Reveals She Doesn’t ‘Feel Any Ounce of Shame’ About Becoming a Mother Later in Life

Hoda Kotb gets candid about motherhood.

In Thursday’s episode Today with Hoda and JennaKotb, 59, opened up about her parenting journey while discussing her recent marriage to Sienna Miller Vogue interview in which she talked about pregnancy at the age of 41.

Kotb — who welcomed her first child at age 52 — is the mother of daughters Hope, 4, and Haley, 6. She adopted her daughters with her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman, from whom she separated in January 2022.

During the interview with Vogue, Miller said, “I’d like to get to a point where I don’t feel the need to joke about being older and having a kid. To show that I’m joking.”

Kotb responded to Miller’s comments by saying, “I think a lot of people do that, like you want to win them over, so you make a joke about, oh, I’m an older mom or if you’re feeling hard … you make a joke about it. I’ve always been fat kid. It’s a joke you make so no one else can.”

Hoda Kotb celebrates Halloween with her daughters Haley and Hope.

Hoda Kotb/Instagram

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But the TV host went on to say that she never felt the need to do the same when it came to her situation.

“I am so happy and fulfilled with my decision that I don’t feel an ounce of shame,” she said.

“Hoda doesn’t feel like she needs a joke,” Kotb’s co-host Jenna Bush Hager added as Kotb nodded in agreement. “Because she’s so enthusiastic about them that when you lead with enthusiasm, guess what? Delight! When you lead with enthusiasm, and that has to do with everything, people return the enthusiasm.”

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on ‘Today with Hoda & Jenna’.

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

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“I love that you’re totally sure about it,” Bush Hager, 42, continued to her co-host, who called her daughters “the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

In a 2020 episode of the NBC show, Kotb recalled being mom-shamed by someone who told her she was too old to have children.

“I got a physical letter in the mail … from a woman who wrote, ‘Who do you think you are to have kids at that age?’ I literally read it and thought, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe someone put a stamp on that and sent that.’ ”

The co-host of “Danas s Hoda i Jenna” with her daughters. Hoda Kotb /Instagram

Revealing that she “literally tore her up,” Kotb added that she “felt terrible at that moment, because there’s something about it that bothers you.”

“But then I thought, ‘Who would take a piece of paper and a pen and write that, fold it and put it in a stamped envelope and bother to mail it?’ It took effort,” she continued.

However, Kotb admitted last year that it was “scary” to think about “how much time” she has with her young daughters.

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“As an older mom, I think there are a lot of beautiful parts and challenges,” she said during the episode Today with Hoda and Jenna. “I see all the good sides of being an older mom. Like, I’m in my own skin, I know who I am, I have a lot more patience and love and all that stuff. But with that comes the fact that you are an elderly mother.”

Kotb then admitted that people would come up to her when she was with her girls and say, “Wait, you’re the mother?” And that gives you pause for a second. And your kids look around like, ‘Huh? What are you talking?’ It’s hard to do,” she continued.

“I remember thinking, ‘Why does it bother me? I’m not embarrassed to be my age. I’m happy at my age. It’s the perfect storm of my life. Two kids, this time, this job.’ Someone said, ‘It gets bigger later’ — it gets bigger later, but there are moments in between where you feel, ‘Ouch,'” she said.

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Source: HIS Education