When Hoda Kotb sat down with her daughter Hope, she wasn’t expecting a conversation that would leave her in tears — or change the way she looked at motherhood forever.
On the Open Book with Jenna podcast, the beloved former TODAY co-anchor opened up about a deeply personal exchange she had one evening while reading Cinderella to Hope, who is just six years old. After closing the book, Hoda looked into her daughter’s big brown eyes and asked softly, “Honey, what’s it like to have diabetes?”
Hope, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2023, didn’t hesitate. “Well, it hurts with the needles,” she said. “And it hurts my feelings when I can’t have things other kids have sometimes. And then I sometimes think, ‘Oh well, that’s my life.’ And then I think maybe it’ll go away.”
The honesty of that answer hit Hoda like a wave — but what came next took her completely by surprise.
“Then she looked at me and said, ‘What’s it like for you? To have me?’” Hoda recalled. “And I just lost it. I said, ‘Having you is a big statement from God — saying He gave me the strongest one.’”
It was a moment that Hoda says made her stop and truly see her daughter — not just as her child, but as a person navigating her own challenges with courage beyond her years.
Hoda revealed Hope’s diagnosis earlier this year, explaining that managing her daughter’s condition was one of the reasons she stepped away from her TODAY role in January. “When you have a child with Type 1, you’re constantly monitoring, constantly watching, constantly checking,” she shared. “You realize what really matters.”
Hope’s journey with diabetes began when she was hospitalized in 2023, an experience that deeply shook Hoda. Since then, she’s been open about the daily vigilance required to keep her daughter healthy — and the emotional weight that comes with it.
But that bedtime conversation reminded Hoda of something she says she’d forgotten: how to slow down. “I sprint through life,” she admitted. “I miss the little moments — the tiny conversations that are everything.”
Now, Hoda says she’s working on carving out quiet time with both of her daughters, Hope and Haley, 8, learning to see them not just as children but as whole, complex humans. “When you finally stop rushing,” she said, “you realize they have things to teach you, too.”
And when it comes to lessons, none have been as profound as the one Hope taught her mother that night — that even in the face of pain and uncertainty, love can make every challenge feel a little lighter.
“I told her,” Hoda said, “that having her is the greatest joy of my life. Because she is proof that strength comes in the smallest, bravest packages.”
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