Hoda Kotb has seemed positively over the moon since announcing her adoption of a baby girl in February. The 52-year-old host called motherhood “beyond a dream” when she returned to Today in April after her maternity leave.
Now she’s written a sweet letter on the Today website to her daughter, Haley Joy, about what she hopes the future has in store for her. The letter includes “Some thoughts about the perfectly put-together you” and is structured by body part, with Hoda hoping her daughter will “listen” to her heart, and use her eyes “to see the good in people and each day.”
Kotb also writes,”Your hands: Lend them and hold mine whenever you need to. Your belly: It will get tickled a lot by the pompoms I’ll be shaking for you constantly. Your brain: No one cares what it weighs or if another brain ‘wore it better’ so value it and share the best of it.”
The letter is part of Today’s “Love Your Body” series, which has inspired other touching letters from mothers of daughters, including one from Savannah Guthrie to her daughter Vale and from Jenna Hager Bush to her daughters, Mila and Poppy.
In her letter, Hager points out that while she loves looking at her beautiful daughters, she knows they will face challenges as they grow older.
She writes, “But, my darling girls, that purity and light I see in your eyes could one day be shattered by our world. You will see images on TV and in movies and magazines to which you will inevitably compare yourself. And you will feel that you come up short. I know that I did.”
Ultimately, Hager hopes that she can instill values in her daughters that will help them value themselves for more than how they look.
Hoda seems to feel the same when she writes to Haley Joy: “Your skin: Strive to be comfortable in it your whole life.”
