Hoda Kotb Used to Get an ‘Ouch’ About Being an Older Mom. What Changed

Hoda Kotb says her age has given her an advantage when it comes to raising her kids.

The former TODAY co-anchor, who is mother to Haley, 8, and Hope, 6, believes the experience she has gained in the world has prepared her for motherhood.

“I’ve often thought about being an older mom,” she told Jenna Bush Hager on the Sept. 23 episode of her “Open Book with Jenna” podcast.

“And it was funny. I was just reading something and, you know, a lot of moms start at 20, 25, 30, even 35, when you don’t know anything about who you are. You’re imparting your parents’ values on your kids. You’re just doing what we all do.”

Hoda Kotb (right) with Haley (left) and Hope (center) on TODAY. (Nathan Congleton / TODAY)

Hoda, 61, had to learn to discard comments about her age to come to an understanding that becoming a mom later in life is not necessarily a bad thing.

“Sometimes when people would say, ‘Oh, you’re an older mom,’ I kind of get an ouch, even though it’s true ... Sixty-one with a third grader and a first grader. Anyway, I am kind of sitting in the fact that I come with wisdom now,” she said.

Hoda feels that the experience she has gained in life has helped her with her children.

Hoda with Haley and Hope and Al Roker and Craig Melvin on Jan. 10, 2025. (Nathan Congleton / TODAY)

“And although I still lose it often, I think I lose it less than I would’ve in my 30s,” she said. “But I do feel like they’re getting more from me that you wouldn’t normally get from a parent who was in their 30s who hasn’t lived a life to know.”

Hoda also preaches the idea that how you envision something can play a large role in what happens next, a notion she wouldn’t have tried to impart when she was younger.

“I was telling my kids, 'Thoughts become things,'” she said. “They go, ‘What?’ I go, ‘Thoughts become things. What you think will be. Thoughts become things. You think you’re going to fall off your bike? Watch. You think you’re going to stand up? Watch.'

“So I’m trying to show them little bits and pieces, things that I would’ve never thought of or even said in my 30s, or even my 40s, maybe," she continued.

Jenna then asked Hoda what brings her the most joy now.

“Conversations and a deep knowing of my kids,” she replied.

“I don’t think I knew them that well before,” she continued. “But now because I sit with them and see them and listen to them and soak in all the stuff that they’re telling me. I feel like that brings me incredible joy.”

Hoda’s comments about being an older mom echo what she has previously said about the positive side of it.

“I’m in my own skin. I know who I am. I’ve got much more patience and love and all that stuff,” she said in 2022 during TODAY's fourth hour.

Despite that, she knows there’s an aspect of it where people will harp on her age.

Hoda with Haley. (TODAY)

“Sometimes, people will come up and say, ‘Wait, you’re their mother?’” she said.

Hoda said at the time that she would wrestle with why that question would bother her, especially since she loved being a mom and the chapter that she was in.

“But in between there are these moments that you feel an ‘ouch,’” she said.

“They’re going to have each other forever, and that’s what really fills me to the top. Because any older parent knows one of our secret fears is that we won’t be there for milestones,” she told People in 2022.