Hoda Kotb, 57, SPLITS from fiancé Joel Schiffman, will continue to co-parent adopted daughters

Hoda Kotb, 57, revealed she has split from her fiancé, Joel Schiffman, two years after he proposed – but said they will continued to ‘lovingly’ co-parent their adopted daughters.

The Today Show star announced on Monday morning that she has called off her engagement to long-time partner Joel, 63, after eight years together.

The talk show host said she and Joel – who share daughters Hope, 2, and Haley, 4 – are ‘better as friends and parents than they are as an engaged couple.’

‘Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we are better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple,’ she said.

The news comes two years after Joel popped the question to Hoda in a romantic proposal in Mexico in November 2019 

The talk show host said she and Joel – who share daughters Hope, 2, and Haley, 4 – are ‘better as friends and parents than they 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 adorably delightful children and as friends.

‘Its not like something happened. They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, a season or a lifetime, this was for a season.’

Hoda, who wasn’t wearing her engagement ring, said it felt ‘weird and awkward’ to talk about it publicly, but wanted to focus on the ‘joyous moments’ they had together.

She continued: ‘A lot of women know what this feels like to be changing course in life I feel really breathe in this moment which is a strange feeling to feel. Sometimes in your life, you have to say the truth.’

Joel, a financier, proposed to Hoda in November 2019 while they were enjoying a romantic getaway in Mexico, but they had to cancel their wedding twice due to the pandemic.

The couple was supposed to say ‘I do’ in a beachside ceremony in Mexico in August 2020, but like many people that year, they had to postpone their nuptials because of COVID-19.

They then moved the wedding to November 2020 – marking the one-year anniversary of their engagement – but that also had to be pushed back.

Joel, a financier, proposed to Hoda in November 2019 while they were enjoying a romantic getaway in Mexico. They are pictured right after his proposal

Hoda shared the news of her split from Joel just weeks after the former couple spent the holidays together with their two daughters, as well as the Today show host’s mother, Sameha, and sister, Hala. 

The pair first met in 2013 at a book signing. 

‘It was one of those events they ask us to speak at and it was pouring rain and it was a bunch of Wall Street guys. I didn’t even want to go,’ she previously recalled of the day they met.

‘They asked me to sign some books and one guy is like, “Can you sign it to my grandma?”

‘And this guy walks up and he’s like, “I’ll take a book.” And I was like, “Who do you want me to write it to – your girlfriend, your wife, your aunt?” And he goes, “Write it to me.”‘

Afterwards, they got in contact through someone who was running the event and eventually started dating. They went public with their relationship in 2015.