Hoda Kotb: Sandra Bullock encouraged me to adopt my daughters

Hoda Kotb says Sandra Bullock encouraged her to adopt her daughters.

The ‘Today’ co-host became mother to Haley Joy, four, and Hope Catherine, two, via adoption, and has said it was Hollywood star Sandra who told her not to be “scared” about meeting her first daughter Haley for the first time.

She said: “On the way there, this sounds so weird, but Sandra Bullock was really helping with some guidance about like, ‘Don’t be scared’.

“She was one of the people who I looked to, to realise that someone like me of the same age could do these things.”

Hoda said Sandra – who also adopted her two children, Louis, 11, and Laila, nine – sent her encouraging text messages, and was honest about how “beautiful” her life had become since she had her own kids.

She added to the first-ever episode of People’s ‘Me Becoming Mom’ podcast: “She described the most beautiful part of her life began when her kids entered it. She sent me some texts and I was reading them, and I was playing mu by Ingrid Michaelson.”

The 57-year-old television star and her fiancé, Joel Schiffman, are planning on adopting a third child, but their plans have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hoda recently said: “You know what’s funny about the adoption stuff that’s going on now?

“Apparently it’s really slow during this time during COVID. I thought it would be a different game …

“They said that a lot of people who maybe normally would feel like it would be something they’d want to do — have a child and give it to someone to raise because they couldn’t — are holding on to things because they don’t have anything in that moment, so that’s what I’ve heard from our agency.

“Everything’s slow.”