Hoda Kotb reveals Today absence due to 3-year-old daughter in ICU: 'I am so grateful she's home'

Hoda Kotb returned to anchoring the Today show on Monday following a two-week absence, which she revealed to the audience was due to her 3-year-old daughter's stay in the ICU.

"My youngest, Hope, was in the ICU for a few days and then in the hospital for a little more than a week," Kotb told her Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. "I am so grateful she's home, she is back home. I was waiting for that day to come, and we are watching her closely. I'm just so happy."

"You know what I realized too, Savannah, is, when your child is ill, the amount of gratitude you can have for people who helped you out," she continued. "So I'm grateful for the doctors at Weill Cornell who were amazing and the nurses. And I'm grateful to my family and I'm grateful to friends like you who were there every single day. So I want to say thank you for that. I love you."

No other information on Hope's illness was provided at the time of the broadcast.

Kotb had been noticeably absent from Today since Feb. 17, which had overlapped with Guthrie's absence. Though, Guthrie had tested positive for COVID-19 and was isolating at home.

On March 1, fellow anchor Craig Melvin said on-air of Kotb, "We know a lot of you have been wondering how she's doing. We can tell you that Hoda's okay. She's got a family health matter that she's been dealing with, so we look forward to seeing Hoda and Savannah back at the desk real, real soon."

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