Hoda Kotb Shared a Rare Photo From the First Day She Met Her Fiancé Joel Schiffman
Although Hoda Kotb doesn’t have a photo of her and fiancé Joel Schiffman on their first date, the Today with Hoda & Jenna host shared the next best thing: a picture of her and Joel from the day they met.
On Wednesday, Hoda and co-host Jenna Bush Hager shared the first photos they took with their partners. “You know what’s funny, obviously we didn’t take a picture of our first date, but the place where I met Joel was at an event, so there were some pictures taken,” Hoda told Jenna.
The cropped image is a classic: Joel is wearing a name tag and Hoda’s rocking chunky white earrings while they pose and smile.
“That picture was taken, and there were actually other people in the picture who we later just cropped out,” Hoda said, adding that she has a black and white copy of it folded up in her apartment. “I remember looking at it and thinking he’s so handsome, just such a happy guy, and I liked all that,” she said with a huge smile.
“Don’t you feel lucky to have that documentation? Because Lord knows you wouldn’t be taking out your camera and taking a selfie,” Jenna jokingly asked her.
Hoda and Joel met at an event in New York City in 2013, which she previously admitted that she didn’t even want to attend. “It was one of those events they ask us to speak at and it was pouring rain and it was a bunch of Wall Street guys,” Hoda shared on Bethenny Frankel’s former talk show Bethenny. “They asked me to sign some books and one guy is like, ‘Can you sign it to my grandma?’ And this guy walks up and he’s like, ‘I’ll take a book.’ And I was like, ‘Who do you want me to write it to—your girlfriend, your wife, your aunt?’ And he goes, ‘Write it to me.’”
The two hit it off, and seven years later, they live together in New York City, adopted their two daughters Haley Joy and Hope Catherine, and are planning their wedding.
In November, Hoda shed light on the impact Joel’s had on her life. “I feel like everything good in my life started happening when I turned 49,” Kotb told Andy Cohen. “I met Joel, [had] the kids, everything happened since then.”
And while their wedding plans are on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, Hoda said she “already feels married” to Joel anyway. These two are just the cutest!
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