“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, 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,” the 57-year-old revealed while addressing why she was no longer seen with her engagement ring. The TODAY anchor is a parent to adopted daughters Haley and Hope, alongside Schiffman. Back in October 2020, Kotb spoke with Entertainment Tonight about possibly adopting a third child together, although that never came to be. “You know what, Joel and I have had this conversation because—you feel like you get a limited of time on earth and your heart expands, and sometimes you don’t realize your heart’s ability to expand until you’ve filled [it] and sometimes you think you’re at the top, and then you realize that there’s more room,” she shared at the time. “And we wondered, you know, would our family be better with another child? Do we have enough love, do we have enough time, you know, will we be a better family unit? And the answer to all those questions seems to be ‘yes, we would be.’” “You can’t control how life works,” Kotb added. “Like, all we can do is put it into the universe and fill out papers and then wait and if it happens wow, you know, that was meant to be.” Still, Schiffman has proven to be a doting father to his and Kotb’s adorable young daughters. The TV personality has previously gushed about her fiancé telling Entertainment Tonight in 2018, “He’s an unbelievable father to Haley.” Keep reading to find out more about Hoda Kotb’s ex and co-parent, Joel Schiffman.
What does Hoda Kotb’s ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman do for a living?
Schiffman is a 63-year-old financial executive. According to his LinkedIn page, Schiffman is the Head of Intermediary Distribution, North America at Schroder Investment Management.
Has Hoda Kotb’s ex Joel Schiffman been married before?
Like Kotb, Schiffman has been married before. He shares daughter Kyle Schiffman with his ex-wife. Kyle also adores Kotb’s little girls. “I love having them as officially now my two little step-sisters. It’s kind of cool,” she told Closer Weekly in 2019, noting that her father is wonderful with Hope and Haley. “He’s still just a great dad,” she said. “He and I always have time to hang out and see each other. He’s great with the girls. I know he adores the ground that all three of us walk on and he’s just a great dad and it’s cool to see that my family of me and him kind of grew now.”
Where did Hoda Kotb meet her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman?
Kotb and her “Jewish gentleman” first met in 2013 at an event that the NBC anchor “didn’t want to go to.” She explained to Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, “It was pouring rain. It was yucky. I go down, it was a bunch of Wall Street guys. Not my crowd. I had to give a speech. They were bored.” Before leaving the event, Kotb was asked to sign a few things for people in line, including Schiffman. She recalled, “He goes, ‘Can you sign this.’ And I said, ‘Who should I write it to?’ And he said, ‘How about to me?’ and [I] said, ‘How ‘bout to you.’” A smitten Kotb then asked someone from the place to find out his “situation.” The person emailed Schiffman and he ended up emailing Kotb and asked her out.
What did Hoda Kotb tell her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman about wanting children?
Kotb, whose cancer treatment had left her unable to conceive, admittedly couldn’t move in with Schiffman until he knew that she always wanted to be a mom, and she wanted to know if kids were on the table for him. “I always wanted to have a child, and I wondered if Joel did, too,” she revealed to Wendy Williams in 2019." I went to Joel and I said to him, ‘I need to discuss something with you and it’s really important,’ and I said, ‘And I want you to not answer me now. I want you to marinate, I want you to take a week, take a month, take as long as you need.’ And so he looked at me like he was terrified. And I said, ‘There’s a feeling inside that I cannot quiet anymore and I have to say it out loud and I’m going to say it and I said, ‘I want to explore adoption with you.’” “He said, ‘I don’t need a minute,’” Kotb continued. “I like cried on his chest and my mascara was down because in that minute he knew that there was nothing that could make me happier.” Kotb also confirmed to Williams that Schiffman is the father on the adoption papers. Schiffman was by Kotb’s side when she was handed her daughter Hope in 2019. While introducing her second child, Kotb told her TODAY cohosts, “You know what’s funny? You think that you’re full. That’s exactly how I felt with Haley and Joel and everything. And Joel and I were standing there when they hand you the baby, and it’s the closest thing to a live birth I think you’ll ever see, but in that moment I was like, ‘Oh my God, my heart just grew.’”
When did Hoda Kotb and her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman get engaged?
The couple got engaged in 2019 during a vacation in Mexico. “We went to our usual vacation, we ended up having a little dinner on the beach and we were done with the dinner, I was eating the churros, licking the bottom of the bowl and he was like I have something else I would like to say,” Kotb told Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Jenna Bush Hager and Craig Melvin on the TODAY show. “And he said some beautiful things, and then he got down on one knee, and he said would you be my wife? And I said yes.” Next, see Hoda Kotb’s sweetest moments with daughter Haley.
