Hoda Kotb Reveals Engagement on NBC’s ‘Today’

Hoda Kotb on Monday announced that she and her boyfriend, financier Joel Schiffman, are engaged after six years together. The Today co-anchor shared the news live on air during this morning’s broadcast of the NBC morning show.

“I have to tell you something. A friend of mine, a friend of ours, asked me to let you guys in on a secret,” she told her Today co-hosts. “I’ll give you her initials. Her initials are Hoda Kotb, and she’s engaged!”

Kotb then showed off her engagement ring and revealed that she had kept it hidden from the entire Today show crew, slipping it on right before she shared the news on camera.

 

 

 

 

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Congratulations are in order for @hodakotb and #JoelSchiffman, who are now … ENGAGED! Details at our link in bio. (: @hodakotb)

A post shared by TODAY (@todayshow) on Nov 25, 2019 at 5:32am PST

Co-hosts Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Jenna Bush Hager all appeared shocked, with Guthrie excitedly and repeatedly shouting, “What?!”

Kotb went on to share more of her engagement story. “He was like, ‘I have something else I would like to say,’ and he said some beautiful things and then he got down on one knee,” she recounted. “Then he said, ‘Would you be my wife…? I was totally shocked. He had a good poker face.”

Kotb also said on Today that she and Schiffman are “still trying to figure out” how they’re going to explain their engagement to daughters Haley Joy and Hope Catherine.

Kotb and Schiffman started dating in the summer of 2013 after Today producer Joanne LaMarca Mathisen set them up. Kotb was previously married to former tennis coach Burzis Kanga from 2005 to 2008.

Watch Kotb announce her engagement to Schiffman below. 

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