SALT LAKE CITY — Hoda Kotb returned to the “Today” show on Tuesday after five months away for maternity leave.
Kotb was spending time with her new daughter, Hope Catherine, and her big sister, Haley Joy. She talked with Savannah Guthrie about what her experience with maternity leave was like, sharing her excitement for the experience, according to USA Today.
“I’ve had the best five months I ever could’ve imagined in my life,” she shared. “I didn’t know what I was missing. And I was also excited to come back.”
She said “felt a little bad about” leaving for maternity leave.
“In reality, life is a blink and you get this moment, so I decided I was going to take it,” she said.
Kotb last month that she will return to “Hoda & Jenna” on Sept. 3, the day after Labor Day, according to USA Today. Kotb has been on maternity leave with her new baby, Hope Catherine.
She announced her decision to return to the show in an Instagram video.
“Hi guys! Guess what? It’s time to get my roots done. I’m coming back to work,” she said in the video.
She added, “Look, I’m not going to lie, this has probably been the best summer of my entire life with these two kids. I’ve loved every second of it. But you know what else I’m going to love? Coming back to you guys.”
Kotb will now return to her morning schedule, which she explained to The Cut back in March. She said she never hits the snooze button in the morning and that she always sets multiple alarms.
“I have two alarms set on my phone. One goes off at 3 a.m. and one goes off at 3:15 a.m. I’m one of those people who pops up,” she said. “I don’t usually linger too much.”
“Don’t hit snooze. Don’t do it. You wanna do it, you think that 10 more minutes is gonna be great. It’s never good,” she explains. “Once you hit snooze, your day is no bueno, because you’re already behind.”
As I wrote for the Deseret News, she said she never drinks coffee.
“During the day, if I feel kind of like I’m flatlining, those Listerine mints are so awesome. Sometimes I do it during the show, I feel so out of it and I just pop one,” she said.