Hoda Kotb announced when she will be returning to the "Today" show after maternity leave. (Photo: Charles Sykes, Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Hoda Kotb has soaked up every precious minute with her babies, but it’s time to go back to work.
The “Today” show host has announced that she will return to “Hoda & Jenna” on Sep. 3, right after Labor Day, after spending time with her newest addition, Hope Catherine.
She shared the news of her return in a video on Instagram.
“Hi guys! Guess what? It’s time to get my roots done. I’m coming back to work,” the mom of two joked.
“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,” she said. “But you know what else I’m going to love? Coming back to you guys.”
She said that she is getting ready and is setting her alarm for 3:15 a.m.— but with a baby and toddler in the house, that’s probably nothing.
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Hiiiiii!!! So excited to come back! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
A post shared by Hoda Kotb (@hodakotb) on
‘My heart just grew’
Kotb, 55, shared in April on the show that she had welcomed her second daughter via adoption alongside her partner Joel Schiffman.
“Joel and I were standing there when they hand you the baby… at that moment I was like, ‘My God, my heart just grew…’ ” she recalled.
Hope joined big sister, 2-year-old Haley Joy.
Kotb’s announcement was followed with a flurry of baby news from the “Today” show. Soon after, her co-host Jenna Bush Hager announced that she was expecting baby No. 3, and Hal arrived Aug. 2. Hager is now on maternity leave.
Meteorologist and third hour co-host Dylan Dreyer recently shared news that she is pregnant with her second child, after experiencing struggles with secondary infertility.
Maternity leave is ‘not a vacation’
While the baby boom leaves holes in the show, Kotb hopes women embrace this time with their children if they can.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to go back, but at the same time I feel like I didn’t miss this moment,” she told People. “We all need to pay [our] bills and have insurance … We can’t take all the time we want. I get it. But I feel like if you can, and if you’re at a point where you feel like you can do it, you should do it. I’m sure every woman wants to do it and can’t. But if more women are taking the allotted time, then other women aren’t going to look at them funny.”
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Look who is feeding Hope!!! Burp cloth and all!!!
A post shared by Hoda Kotb (@hodakotb) on
But she also made it clear that maternity leave is work.
“It’s not a vacation,” Kotb said. “I worked harder on maternity leave than I did at work. You’re up at the crack of dawn, and you’re up all hours. Stay-at-home moms should be called work-at-home moms. You are up all the time. We post stuff on Instagram from the beach, but it’s work. But it’s the best work. It’s the best work I did in my life. I don’t know if my kids will remember it, but … I will always remember.”
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