Proud college graduate

Hoda Kotb graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in broadcast journalism in 1986. While in college, she was a member and bonding coach for the Delta Delta Delta women’s sorority.

When Kotb reflected on her decision to attend the university in 2023, she said it felt like she was meant to attend Virginia Tech, drawn by its large student body. She called the decision one of the “best” of her life and thanked the school for teaching her “how to learn” and the importance of curiosity.

“I learned skills that still serve me today and that go far beyond reading books and staying up all night,” Kotb told Dawn Jefferies of Virginia Tech.

In the local news

After graduating, Hoda Kotb landed her first on-air gig at WXVT in Greenville, Mississippi. She told Hotty Toddy In 2014, she recounted how she looked everywhere for a job with little success until the Greenville station’s news and sports director, Stan Sandroni, gave her a chance.

The journalist then moved to Moline, Illinois, to work as a reporter at WQAD from 1988 to 1989 before becoming a weekend anchor and reporter at WINK in Fort Myers, Florida. Her last local news job before her big break was at WWL in New Orleans, where she worked as an anchor and reporter for six years.

“A lot of it was just timing and luck, besides hard work,” she told Media Bistro about her early careers. “A lot of people work hard, but I think I got lucky with timing. While I was working in one place, I fell in love with that place. I didn’t think, ‘What’s the next place?'”

Switch to NBC News

While working in New Orleans, a vice president of NBC called Hoda Kotb for an interview. In April 1998, Kotb officially joined the NBC News team as a correspondent for DatelineNBC and all platforms of the network.

On a Today with Hoda & Jenna episode in 2022, with a look back at her first days at Date lineShe remembered feeling inferior to her peers.

“I appear at Date line and suddenly I’m in freshman grade and everyone else is in their senior year of high school,” the host said. “And I realized that even though I thought I was at my best, I still had something completely new to learn.”

Your breast cancer diagnosis

In March 2007, Hoda Kotb’s gynecologist discovered a lump under her breast during a routine examination, after which she had to undergo a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery to treat her breast cancer. In an October 2007 interview on Today Show with Ann Curry, and she told the Today Show in 2008 that some of the answers made her “heart burst.”

“This is an incredible platform to be able to help people. Now I walk down Broadway and women hug me – and many have been through much worse,” the journalist said. “My God, no matter what you’ve been through, someone has been through worse, and it’s our responsibility as human beings to help people.”

Join “Today” Fourth Hour

Her breast cancer diagnosis and recovery did not stop Hoda Kotb from continuing her rise. In fact, it motivated her to take big steps in her career. After her mastectomy, she told NBC that she would be leaving the fourth hour of Todayand in September 2007 she sat next to Ann Curry and Natalie Morales at the first edition.

Kathie Lee Gifford later replaced Curry and Morales as Kotb’s co-host and for the next 11 years Today with Kathie Lee & Hoda established itself as a cornerstone of daytime television.

Her autobiography

In 2010, Hoda Kotb published her first memoirs with Simon and Schuster. Hoda: How I survived war zones, bad hair, cancer and Kathie Leewhich in the New York Times bestseller list. According to the synopsis, the autobiography traces her journey from breast cancer survivor to Today show host and her adventure travels for network television. Since then, she has published a total of seven books, including three children’s books.

Become a co-host of “Today”

Hoda Kotb officially became one of the co-hosts of Today with Savannah Guthrie in 2018, after Matt Lauer was fired in November of the previous year.

“We were just trying to get through those days together,” Kotb told PEOPLE after news of her appointment broke. “Sometimes when you go through something with someone, you see something special. I think that’s what happened. I didn’t think about whether it would be me.”

Win a Daytime Emmy

In May 2019, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Informational Talk Show Host as hosts of Today‘s fourth hour. Gifford, who left the morning show after 11 years the month before accepting the award, called in the Today Show to celebrate with her former co-host.

“That was kind of the last Emmy for our show,” Kotb told Gifford live. “The fact that you were standing there on stage holding that hardware was so incredible. That’s how you put a period at the end of a sentence.”

Motherhood and “Hope is a Rainbow”

After the health shock of her youngest daughter Hope in February 2023, Hoda Kotb took two weeks off from Today Show to care for her. During Hope’s recovery, Kotb – who is also mother to a daughter named Haley Joy – was inspired to write her third children’s book. Hope is a rainbowwhich will be released in 2024.

“To me, a rainbow represents something you can’t quite touch, but it’s magical and amazing. So when I thought about how I carry Hope in my heart, I realized, ‘She IS a rainbow,'” the host explained the caption to Today.com in August 2023.

She continued, referring to her daughter’s health issues earlier in the year: “She taught me that resilience comes in all kinds of forms and that children are incredibly strong. She also taught me to find miracles in the smallest things.”

In March 2024, the mother of two told PEOPLE, “The book was originally written because (Hope) is who she is. I thought her goodness should be spread everywhere.”

“Today with Hoda & Jenna”

Since 2019, Hoda Kotb has been sharing the fourth hour of Today time slot with NBC’s Jenna Bush Hager, with the two bringing their trademark humor and approachability to the anchor desk. The stars’ off-screen friendship often comes into play on the show – like when Hager offered to set Kotb up with Lenny Kravitz.