Hoda Kotb has announced that she has split up with Joel Schiffman after an eight year relationship. “Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we’re better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple, so we decided we are going to start this new year … on our new path as loving parents to our adorable, delightful children, and as friends,” Kotb revealed on “Today with Hoda & Jenna” (via People). “It’s not like something happened. They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, or a season or for a lifetime. And I feel like ours was meant to be there for a season.”
She admitted that while she had tried to be optimistic about the state of the relationship, “sometimes you realize optimism is like trying to put a circle in a square — sometimes it just doesn’t work, and it’s okay.” Kotb added that her and Schiffman’s focus will remain on parenting their two young daughters, Hope and Haley. “He’s a great guy. He’s a very kind and loving person, and I feel privileged to have spent eight years with him,” she explained. “We are both good and we are both kind of going on our way and our path. We’ll be good parents to those two lovely kids.”
