A little more than two years after announcing their engagement, Hoda Kotb and Joel Schiffman are going their separate ways.
During a touching moment on the Today show, the host confirmed the couple—who have been together since 2013 and have two daughters Hope, 2, and Haley, 4—made the decision to split after more than 8 years together.
"Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays, and we decided that we're better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple," Kotb said during the Jan. 31 episode. "So, we decided we are going to start this new year on our new path as loving parents to our adorably delightful children and as friends."
And there's no bad blood here. "It's not like something happened," she said. "They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, for a season or for a lifetime, and I feel like ours was meant to be there for a season."
After sharing so many "beautiful parts" of her relationship with viewers—like her daughters' adoptions and her and Joel's engagement—she felt it was only right to be transparent once again.
"The difficult part sometimes you just wanna forget about," she shared. "You wanna erase them. You don't wanna share them, because that's not part of a pretty picture. But I think a lot of women know what this feels like in this moment, to be changing course in life. And I feel really brave in this moment, I really do, which is sort of a strange feeling to feel. But sometimes in your life, you just have to say the truth."
"Sometimes it just doesn't work," she added. "And it's okay."
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