Hoda Kotb opened up about her battle with breast cancer on Today With Hoda & Jenna during a candid conversation about personal health with Jenna Bush Hager and their guest host, Maria Shriver.
Kotb said that her battle with cancer was especially difficult because she was dealing with a personal issue at the same time.
“I went through a divorce and breast cancer simultaneously, and I remember in that time barely functioning,” she said. “I was thinking to myself is this it? Is this how it goes?”
Kotb went through a divorce in 2008 from former University of New Orleans tennis coach, Burzis Kanga.
“I was thinking about some of my lowest moments. During that time what was contributing to all of it was, I was in horrible health and I didn’t care about that piece of it,” she said. “You don’t realize how bad it gets and you’re compounding it: your health gets worse because you’re not well.”
She then explained that she didn’t realize how much her health had impacted her wellbeing during that difficult period of time until she felt like she was on the other side of it.
“You realize when you’re on solid ground again and you look back, and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t take an hour for myself,'” she said. “There are all the things that I never, ever did, that I do today, that make all the difference.”
Kotb has never been one to shy away from discussing her personal health journey. Addressing the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s symposium in 2017, she spoke in detail about how she came to terms with her breast cancer diagnosis and why she didn’t let it hold her back.
“Cancer shaped me, but it did not define me. It’s part of me, but not all of me. It just goes to show you that in my early 40s, I was sick, I was getting divorced, and I was in a job that I wasn’t suited for,” she said at the time, per The Hollywood Reporter.
But, she added, “I’m now 53 years old, I have a guy I love, a baby who is the light of my life. She’s so sweet! And [I have] a job that’s pretty cool, too, so 53 is awesome.”
She was referring to her relationship with financier Joel Schiffman, to whom she was engaged until the couple split in 2022. The couple share two daughters.
Today with Jenna and Hoda airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.