Hoda Kotb Says Daughter Hayley Joy Fulfilled Her Spiritually

Hoda Kotb is opening about motherhood and how welcoming her now 1-year-old daughter into her life has strengthened her relationship with God. Per People, the popular Today anchor recently spoke openly about how her daughter has “personified” her faith after admitting that she sometimes wondered before welcoming her into her life about whether or not God could really hear her when she prayed.

“We were just brought up to believe in God. We were all about that, and I feel like when you have a relationship with God, and I feel like I’ve had endless, countless, abundant conversations about it,” Kotb admitted while speaking candidly with Arianna Huffington on the Thrive Global Podcast.

“Sometimes you think, can he hear me? Does he hear me? Am I just talking to myself? Is it for real?” she continued of her faith.

The star then admitted that becoming a mom to Haley with her boyfriend Joel Schiffman has become “proof of everything” for her after she found that she was unable to physically conceive a child of her own following a battle with breast cancer.

“I think when Haley arrived, I didn’t have any doubt in that belief, but when Haley arrived, it was personified,” Kotb explained. “When I watch her now, I just feel like she’s proof of everything. Like, everything. Yeah. She’s the best.”

Kotb also spoke very candidly about how she hid her grief and sadness after discovering following her breast cancer battle that she would likely be unable to conceive a child naturally, which happened at the same time as she was going through a separation with her former husband Burzis Kanga. The couple later divorced in 2008.

Hoda shared that she would try to block out “how devastating” being told the news that she likely wouldn’t be able to carry her own child was to her.

“It was like, horrible things were happening at the same time, and I kept thinking this is an avalanche of pain,” she continued in the very candid interview, recalling that she would often ask herself, “How does anyone deal with this?”

She then revealed that she began to accept that she wouldn’t be able to have her own children, but was no longer able to push those feelings aside when she met her current boyfriend Joel Schiffman.

“It just kept coming up. I tried to push it away, it kept coming,” she said of her desire to become a mom, before recalling how she told Joel about how she wanted to explore the possibility of adopting a child together.

Shortly after, the couple made the decision to adopt Haley Joy – who was born in February 2017 – together. Kotb often proudly shows her off on her social media accounts and beyond.

As the Inquisitr previously shared, while Hoda often shares adorable photos and videos of her baby girl on social media, the little girl also even recently appeared alongside her mom on Today.

The adorable 1-year-old gave a special shout-out to her mom’s co-star Al Roker while joining Kotb on the morning show in celebration of “#DayOfTheGirl.” Trying out Hoda’s job for the day, little Haley threw to Al during a very cute segment of the NBC series.

Prior to her big appearance on the morning series last month, the Inquisitr reported that the anchor celebrated Joel’s birthday back in March with some adorable family photos on Instagram.

The cute uploads included one impossibly cute snap of the family alongside the caption, “Oh happy day!!!” as they all smiled together while posing for the camera.