Hoda Kotb is lamenting the fact that she may have to cancel her wedding due to the coronavirus. The 55-year-old Today show co-host appears virtually on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, and reveals that her planned nuptials with Joel Schiffman may have to wait.
“We are kind of guessing that it will [get postponed],” Kotb says. “It was a destination wedding, which would mean people getting on planes. We were kind of holding out to see what could happen, but the destination that we were going to is turning into one of the hot spots. So it looks like we may have to postpone.”
“We’re kinda bummed about that because the place we were going is, like, our favorite place on Earth,” she continues. “We love it there. I know we should say, ‘Who cares? It doesn’t matter.’ But we waited a long time, so I sure hope we get to have it. I don’t know when.”
While saying “I do” may have to wait, Kotb says that being quarantined with Schiffman and their two children — Haley, 3, and Hope, 1 — made her certain she’s chosen the right partner.
“I picked the best person on Earth. I know it a thousand times over,” she says. “Being cooped up, you know right away if you chose right. I mean, you know. I don’t know if he thinks he chose right, but I did.”
Kotb announced her engagement last November on the Today show, revealing that Schiffman, whom she’d been with for six years, popped the question while they were on vacation.
“I was totally shocked… We went on our usual vacation. We ended up having a little dinner on the beach. And I was like, we were done with the dinner, I was eating the churros, I looked in the bottom of the bowl, and he was like, ‘I have something else I’d like to say,'” Kotb recalled at the time. “And he said some beautiful things and then he got down on one knee and then he said, ‘Will you be my wife?’ I said, ‘Yes!'”
