“Today” co-anchor Hoda Kotb became the news on Monday, announcing that she got engaged to longtime boyfriend Joel Schiffman over the weekend. Kotb slyly segued into the moment, then dropped the bombshell that shocked her colleagues.
“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,” Kotb said, as seen in the clip above. “I’ll give you her initials. Her initials are Hoda Kotb, and she’s engaged.”
Schiffman, 61, proposed to Kotb, 55, on one knee during a tropical vacation. Kotb said she thought dinner was wrapping up as she licked the churros from her fingers. Then Schiffman popped the question.
“I was totally shocked,” she said. “He had a good poker face.”
Kotb was previously married to former tennis coach Burzis Kanga. She filed for divorce in 2007.
She adopted a baby girl named Haley in 2017 and a daughter named Hope in April.
Schiffman, a businessman, has an adult daughter from a previous marriage, The Oprah Magazine reported.