Today is starting off a really great note: Hoda Kotb is engaged to her longtime love Joel Schiffman!
The Today anchor shared the exciting news with co-hosts Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager, Craig Melvin and Al Roker on Monday morning's show. "I have to tell you something that a friend of mine, a friend of ours asked me to let you guys in on a secret," the 55-year-old teased. "Well, I'll give you her initials. Her initials are Hoda Kotb and she's engaged!"
Cue the tears, hugs and screams from her surprised friends. "What are you talking about?" said a shocked Guthrie while Melvin pointed to her gorgeous new sparkler and asked, "Was that on the whole time?" (Nope, she had secretly slipped it on while announcing the news.)
During a romantic dinner on the beach, Schiffman popped the question to his love of six years. "I was eating the churros," she recalled. "I was licking the bottom of the bowl. And he was like, ‘I have something else I'd to say.' He said some beautiful things and then he got down on one knee and he said, ‘Will you be my wife?'"
Now, they're trying to decide just how to tell their daughters Haley Joy, 2, and Hope Catherine, who they adopted in April.
"How are we going to explain, ‘Your parents are going to get married?'" Kotb said. "We're still trying to figure out that part!"
Back in 2016, after three years together, the beloved host announced they were taking a major step in their relationship and moving in together
"It's a little weird to be in your 50s and we're like 'Hey, we're moving in!'" she joked on her Sirius XM Radio show, The Hoda Show. "It's like you're kids. It's so weird. I was afraid to tell my own mother that I was moving in with my boyfriend. I was afraid."
"I know it sounds weird—I've been married," she continued. "It's like, 'Whatever!' But it's weird. It's a little odd."
A year later, they made an even bigger commitment: They had adopted daughter Haley. Shortly after followed the arrival of Hope. "My God, my heart just grew," she said of the moment she first held baby no. 2. "I can't believe it's happening, y'all."
And now look at them! Wishing these two a happily ever after together.