Hoda Kotb Extends Her ‘Today’ Absence to Send Daughters Haley and Hope Back to School

Hoda Kotb continued her break from the Today show to help her daughters kick off the school year.

“Labor Day weekend was wonderful. Hoda’s off,” Savannah Guthrie stated during the second hour of Today on Tuesday, September 3. “She’s extending a little bit 'cause it’s the first day of school for her girls.”

Kotb — who shares daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, with her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman — was absent from the NBC morning show last week but appeared on prerecorded episodes of Today With Hoda & Jenna . ( Sheinelle Jones stepped in for Kotb, 60, on Tuesday’s Hoda & Jenna with cohost Jenna Bush Hager .)

Guthrie, 52, also took a break from Today last week to spend time with her kids before they started school.

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“Back to school,” Guthrie captioned an Instagram Story screenshot of her early alarm on Monday, September 2. (The anchor shares daughter Vale, 10, and son Charley, 7, with her husband, Michael Feldman .)

Kotb and Guthrie’s kids were the latest of the Today hosts’ to head back to school. “And just like that. These two make me so happy and proud,” Craig Melvin captioned an August 28 Instagram pic of his and his wife Lindsay Czarniak ’s son, Delano, 10, and daughter, Sybil, 7, on their first day of school. “Just wish it would all slow down.”

Dylan Dreyer , meanwhile, took to Instagram on Sunday, September 1, to show off her kids’ school-ready haircuts. “I always love the before and after hair … summer mops to back to school ready!!” she captioned adorable snaps of sons Cal, 7, Oliver, 4, and Rusty, 2, whom she shares with her husband, Brian Fichera .

Last month, Al Roker and his wife, Deborah Roberts , helped their son, Nick, 22, put together his dorm room. “Dropped Nick off this afternoon. Hard to believe we have a college junior!! House is a little too quiet,” the meteorologist, 70, captioned an August 24 Instagram slideshow . (Roker shares eldest daughter Courtney, 37, with ex-wife Alice Bell and daughter Leila, 25, with Roberts, 63.)

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Ahead of the new school year, Kotb’s daughters were by her side as she celebrated her milestone 60th birthday. “ Great bday morning !! Lucky me xoxoxo,” she wrote alongside Instagram snaps from her birthday festivities on August 9. Kotb revealed in a follow-up Instagram post that Schiffman, 66, was among more family and friends who attended her at-home birthday party .

Haley and Hope were in attendance at Kotb’s 60th birthday bash on the August 12 episode of Today , during which Sandra Bullock surprised the TV personality with an inspiring message about being an older mom.

“[I’m] tired because I had to make my way up that mountain before you got there so I could check out the terrain and see what things look like and, you know, just get the feel so I could fill you in,” said Bullock, who was in her 40s and 50s when she adopted her kids, Louis and Laila. “And it’s weird because people seem to want us to be afraid of what it might look like when we get there. It turns out, it’s pretty damn great. It’s pretty awesome.”

After tearing up during the video message , Kotb revealed that she looked to Bullock, 60, for inspiration on her motherhood journey. “The reason that I have Haley and Hope is because when I was looking for inspiration of somebody who was a mom at my age, Sandra Bullock popped up and I called her and I said, ‘Tell me about motherhood.’ And she said, ‘It is the best decision I ever made,’” Kotb shared. “And from that moment forward, she led the way to these two girls.”