Hoda Kotb Recalls Moving Moment With Daughter Hope’s Nurse

Hoda Kotb is feeling extra appreciative this National Nurses Week. 

While paying tribute to healthcare workers, the Today co-anchor recalled an exchange with a nurse that “meant everything” amid her 3-year-old daughter Hope‘s hospital stay earlier this year.

“It was 3 a.m., and I was just sitting in this chair,” Hoda explained on Today on May 8. “This nurse walked in and—I still remember—put her hand on my back. Didn’t even say anything. Just sat there for a minute.”

The journalist—who shares Hope and 6-year-old Haley with former fiancé Joel Schiffman—was absent from the morning news show for two weeks back in February after her youngest daughter was admitted to the hospital. During her quiet moment with the nurse, Hoda revealed she had a simple request for Hope.

“I asked for a bath,” the 58-year-old remembered saying. “I wanted to give her a bath, and they could only sponge her, and I said, ‘Please, I’m begging you.'”