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Hoda Kotb opens up about her daughter Hope’s health scare several years ago that led her to take time off from Today in PEOPLE’s newest cover story
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Kotb, 60, reveals that Hope, 6, is living with type 1 diabetes — but is still a “happy, healthy, rambunctious, amazing kid”
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“Diabetes is a part of her but not all of her,” Kotb says. “I hope it shapes her but never defines her”
Hoda Kotb is revealing more about navigating her younger daughter Hope’s medical condition.
In February 2023, a sudden onset of mysterious symptoms landed Hope, 6, in the hospital for two weeks and forced Kotb to take a leave of absence from the Today show.
Now that the family has established a care routine that’s working, Kotb reveals in this week’s cover story that Hope is living with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that prevents the pancreas from making insulin, requiring vigilant blood sugar monitoring and frequent insulin injections.
“It’s kind of constant care for Hope. We’re monitoring her 24/7,” says Kotb, who calls her daughter a “trouper” for the way she’s dealing with the unpleasant realities of treatment.
“She was getting shots — four or five a day — every day for a year. Now she is getting them less frequently because we have some other means to get her what she needs, but there’s a lot to it,” she adds. “Some kids can have sweets, and she can’t. If she’s up in the night, we have to take care of her at night.”
After a pause, Kotb, 60, adds, “She is a happy, healthy, rambunctious, amazing kid, and we have to watch her. Diabetes is a part of her but not all of her. I hope it shapes her but never defines her.”
Brian Doben
Hoda Kotb and daughters, Haley (8) and Hope (5) photographed at home on April 30, 2025.
Being able to be totally available for her daughter became a nonnegotiable, Kotb says, something that was not possible when she was locked into a long-term contract as Today co-host that had hard deadlines and a daily wake-up at 3:15 a.m.
“I really wanted to and needed to be here to watch over her. So whenever she needs anything, and it can happen at night, multiple times, I’m up — I’m up up up,” she says. “But I would never, ever want Hope to one day grow up and say, ‘Oh, my mom left her job because [of me].’ It wasn’t that alone. But if you look at it cumulatively, it was a part of that decision.”
Kotb says it’s also been a transition to help big sister Haley, 8, understand why so much of Mom’s attention is going to Hope. “I think anybody who has one child who has immediate needs, sometimes you have to really work on it [to emotionally support the other]. And I’m actually trying to figure it out,” Kotb says.
The girls will sometimes squabble and play-fight over who Mom loves the most. “I just need to make sure that Haley feels seen and loved. I keep telling them my heart’s ability to expand is beyond measure.”
Brian Doben
Hoda Kotb and daughters, Haley (8) and Hope (5) photographed at home on April 30, 2025.
To read more about Hoda Kotb’s life after Today, pick up the newest issue of PEOPLE on stands now.
In the five months since Kotb exited Today, she says that it’s the small things that have been filling her days with the most joy.
“It’s really cool to just realize that there’s so much more to life,” she says. “I wasn’t able to bear witness to my kids’ daily lives because of what I was doing. I got to see Haley sing ‘What a Wonderful World’ at 9:15 a.m. — I would have missed that. I used to think life was the big things, but it really is all the stuff that happens in between.”
Read the original article on People
