Hoda Kotb’s Today cohosts celebrated the anchor’s 60th birthday by highlighting the positive impact she’s had on people’s lives.
During the second hour of Today’s Monday, August 12, episode, Craig Melvin and Savannah Guthrie surprised Kotb with video messages from the subjects of her most memorable human interests stories, including NFL alum Devon Still and his daughter, Leah.
After Leah, now 14, was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma in 2014, Kotb helped her and other kids fighting cancer film a music video to Cyndi Lauper‘s “True Colors” and Sara Bareilles’ “Brave.” The father/daughter duo continued to share updates on Leah’s cancer journey on the NBC morning show over the years.
“If Leah was having a bad time in the hospital, I would tell her that Hoda was on the phone. She would just have this big smile on her face,” Devon, 35, stated in the video package. “People like Hoda really showed up for up for our family.”
Another pair Kotb highlighted on Today was Bart Conley and his late wife, Jill Conley, who died of breast cancer at age 38 in 2016. Kotb and Jill bonded over their experiences with breast cancer.
“After one of the shoots for the Today show, we went down and had lunch with [Hoda], and those two, it was like they were [longtime] best friends,” Bart stated. “Hoda had sent a video message to Jill when she was having a real hard time. It just lit up Jill’s day and it just meant so much to her.”
During a December 2018 episode of Today, Kotb surprised couple Frank and Stacey Parrado with news that they had been matched with their now 6-year-old daughter, Addison, for adoption. “We had the privilege and the blessing that Hoda got to deliver that message for us and record it for Addison to see for the rest of her life,” Frank said in the clip.
Kotb wiped several tears from her eyes after the video montage, only to cry once more when the families came out to surprise her with flowers in the Today studio. She greeted all the former guests with hugs.
“What I love about Hoda is it’s like, for her birthday, it’s not, like, a retrospective of her life. It’s about people she cares about,” Guthrie, 52, said. “And you guys have all learned that when she cares, she cares when the cameras stop rolling.”
The guests continued to sing Kotb’s praises, with Devon recalling how Kotb traveled to Philadelphia to run a lemonade stand with Leah and Bart stating that Kotb always felt like a “true friend” and “not like a celebrity on TV.”
Kotb went on to explain that Frank and Stacey’s daughter Addison is between the ages of her own daughters. Kotb and her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman adopted their daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
“I bet you guys would be friends, too,” she told Addison before telling the group of guests, “I love you guys.”
Haley and Hope joined Kotb during Monday’s Today episode. Their hands were featured in a mural hung at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in honor of Kotb’s milestone birthday, which featured her catchphrase, “Right on Time.”
Kotb’s birthday festivities continued on Monday with performances from two of her favorite bands, Little Big Town and Sugarland.
