“Today” show host Hoda Kotb said on air Monday that she and fiance Joel Schiffman have broken up after eight years as a couple, saying they’re “better as friends.” (Watch the video below.)
“Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and really meaningful conversations over the holidays, and we decided that we’re better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple,” Hoda said Monday on “Today with Hoda & Jenna.”
Schiffman, a financier, proposed to the TV journalist in November 2019. Kotb made that announcement during a broadcast as well, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed their wedding.
They share two adopted daughters, ages 4 and 2.
On Monday, Kotb said she was addressing the matter publicly because viewers had asked why she wasn’t wearing her engagement ring.
“It’s not like something happened,” Kotb 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.”
Kotb admitted that sharing her news publicly was “weird and awkward,” but “I feel really brave in this moment,” she said.
Afterward, she told co-host Jenna Bush Hager, “I feel better.”
Kotb was previously married to tennis coach Burzis Kanga in the late aughts. Schiffman has a grown daughter from a previous marriage, according to The Oprah Magazine .
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
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