How Hoda Kotb's Bedtime Routine for Daughter Hope 'Backfired'
Jamie McCarthy/Getty ImagesHoda Kotb’s bedtime routine for 4-year-old daughter Hope has backfired big time. “Hope has this thing where she likes ‘something special’ before she goes to sleep,” Kotb, 59, shared on the Monday, October 9, episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna. “She’s in bed, I leave, I go to my room. I literally rummage around; I find an old bracelet. I go, ‘Here, something special.'” Kotb shared that while she initially thought the late-night gifting would be a one-time thing, her daughter had other plans that have forced her to “constantly be rummaging around for ‘something special.’” She added that she recently became particularly desperate when her daughter asked for a present she’d “never seen before.” “You know what I did? I took an old, little Zippy earbud case and shoved coins in it last night – coins and some old plastic rings. And I go, ‘Something special,’” Kotb admitted, laughing, while co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager — who shares three children with husband Henry Ch
Hoda Kotb’s bedtime routine for 4-year-old daughter Hope has backfired big time.
“Hope has this thing where she likes ‘something special’ before she goes to sleep,” Kotb, 59, shared on the Monday, October 9, episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna. “She’s in bed, I leave, I go to my room. I literally rummage around; I find an old bracelet. I go, ‘Here, something special.'”
Kotb shared that while she initially thought the late-night gifting would be a one-time thing, her daughter had other plans that have forced her to “constantly be rummaging around for ‘something special.’” She added that she recently became particularly desperate when her daughter asked for a present she’d “never seen before.”
“You know what I did? I took an old, little Zippy earbud case and shoved coins in it last night – coins and some old plastic rings. And I go, ‘Something special,’” Kotb admitted, laughing, while co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager — who shares three children with husband Henry Chase Hager — pointed out that Kotb started a “terrible” tradition.
When Jenna, 41, suggested non-material gifts for Hope, Kotb shut the idea down instantly. “I give her a million mantras. We do all that stuff. It doesn’t work. She wants to have something,” she joked.
Kotb also noted that things are likely to only get worse for her once 7-year-old daughter Hayley catches on to the routine — something that will seemingly come sooner rather than later. “I know because she does say, ‘Why did Hope get something?’ And not just something — ‘something I’ve never seen before,'” she quipped.
Kotb shares daughters Hayley and Hope with ex Joel Schiffman, from whom she split in 2022 after nine years together. They adopted their little girls in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and Kotb often uses her time on air to recount stories about her little ones. Earlier this month, Kotb recalled how she brought the next generation with her to her high school reunion.
“It was so fun. And at the end, I was telling a story about how I was a late bloomer in high school and a late bloomer in life and all the best things in my life happened after 50,” Kotb, 59, shared on the October 2 episode of Today. “I talked about how I had my girls after 50.”
The fun-filled outing came several months after Hope had a health scare. After an extended absence from the NBC morning show in February and March, Kotb told Today viewers that the 4-year-old was “in the ICU for a few days and in the hospital for a little more than a week.”
The TV personality did not disclose the details of her daughter’s health scare. She added, “I’m so grateful she’s home. … I was waiting for that day to come. And we are watching her closely. I’m just so happy.”
Since then, the mom has been enjoying every moment she can with her girls. In August, she revealed that she is coming out with a book sintered by her youngest child, titled Hope Is a Rainbow. “It was based on my daughter, who, of course, I dreamt of her and hoped for her and her name just fell in,” Kotb said in a statement after announcing her plans to pen the story. “And it just reminds me, and she reminds me that hope’s around every corner. No matter what you go through, no matter what hardship you endure.”
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