Hoda Kotb’s Daughter Hope Is ‘Thriving’ After Surviving Major Health Scare: ‘She Is Improving’

Hoda Kotb shared an update on her daughter Hope’s health one year after she suffered a health scare.

“We’re in a place where Hope is thriving. She is improving, we’re watching her, and I think that as time goes on, we’ll have a better handle on it, but we’re already seeing great differences,” Hoda, 60, told People in an interview published on Wednesday, October 9. “We have really excellent care, I have people who are helping us out. I feel like she is finding steady footing.”

Hoda took time off from Today in February 2023 when Hope was hospitalized and put into the ICU amid an unspecified health battle. Her cohosts filled in for her on the show as she remained by her daughter’s side.

“My youngest, Hope, was in the ICU for and then in the hospital for a little over a week,” the Hope Is a Rainbow author said during her return to the show in March 2023. “I’m so grateful she’s home, she is back home. I was waiting for that day to come, and we are watching her closely.”

She thanked the medical staff who took care of Hope during the scary time.

“We had a scary stretch,” she told People in March, more than a year after Hope’s hospitalization. “Any parent who’s been through a scary thing with their child understands. It’s like you just can’t believe that your child’s sick. You can’t believe that there’s nothing you can do. You can’t believe that no matter what you do, you can’t will it away or protect her, or all the things that we’re supposed to be doing as parents. And it’s a position I’ve never found myself in.”

Now, Hope and her older sister, Haley, are living happily in their new home with their mom. Hoda, who will be leaving Today in early 2025, was excited for her daughters to experience life in the suburbs in a quiet neighborhood and a new school.

“I want my kids to feel grass on their feet, and play in the yard, and ride bikes down the street, and run up and down the stairs,” the mom of two told People in August. “I just see that life for them in this perfect house in this beautiful little town where I know they’ll be able to blossom into beautiful, independent, strong women.”

Once she officially departs Today, she’ll have more time to spend with her little girls at their new place.

“I was like, ‘Guess what? Mommy is going to be able to take you to school now,’” Hoda explained. “They said, ‘Wednesday?’ I go, ‘No, honey, not Wednesday.’ ‘Well, Thursday?’ I go, ‘No, no, no, honey, it’s going to be like after January.’ ‘After my birthday?’ They were horrified,” she says with a laugh. “At this point it’s so far away. ‘It’s after Halloween?’ I go, ‘Yeah, honey, it’s after Halloween!’ A month might seem like forever to them but it’ll sink in eventually.”

Insiders told Closer that Hope’s health scare was a big part of the reason why Hoda felt it was best to step away from the show.

“She’s been seriously thinking about it for a while, but it really kicked in when her youngest, Hope, got sick last year,” a source told Closer on October 3. “She really thought long and hard about her priorities after that. She realized she wanted to be home more.”