Over the years, Today Show co-anchor Hoda Kotb has become a television superstar.
But while her millions of fans know about her struggles as a cancer survivor and her
triumphs as an adoptive mother, there's still plenty you may not know about her.
Here's a look at the untold truth of Hoda Kotb.
Fitting in
Kotb was greatly influenced by her experiences growing up as a first-generation American.
Her parents were immigrants from Egypt who moved to the United States, and despite being
raised in America, Kotb said that she often felt different growing up.
School was especially difficult.
She wrote in her autobiography,
"When you have a weird name and your hair and skin are different and you don't blend
in, it's a long year.
You have to work extra hard to make friends.
And just when you do, it's time for the next grade and a new roll call."
Landing a job
Kotb may be mega famous now, but it was a long road to achieve that level of fame.
In an interview with author and public speaker Christina Daves, Kotb talked about the overwhelming
rejection she faced in her early career.
After graduating from Virginia Tech, Kotb was confident that she'd nail her first job
interview.
Instead, she was rejected over and over, driving from one failed interview to another.
She said,
"I stayed in that car driving around for 10 days…
I got rejected in the whole southeastern United States of America…
I got rejected all the way through the Panhandle…
27 news directors had rejected me to my face."
She finally landed her first job in Mississippi, and the rest is history.
Kotb offered advice to others pursuing their goals.
"Everybody doesn't have to love you.
You just need one person.
You only need one."
"There's a new source of energy in Louisiana.
And she's lighting up the nights, in New Orleans.
Hoda Kotb, weeknights on Nightwatch."
Body image
Kotb long struggled with her body image, something that wasn't helped by being on television.
She told Prevention magazine,
"I struggled all through college.
I started really putting on weight after my dad passed, and I just didn't realize it.
I was an athlete in high school, so I didn't know I was big until one of my bosses came
up to me and said, 'Hey, Hoda, maybe you ought to get on the treadmill.'"
Her relationship with her body changed after she had cancer and she became more confident.
"I guess I feel freer now than I ever did before.
I don't think I ever wore a bikini before I got sick.
But now I feel like 'OK, this is my body,' you know?
'Have at it.'"
Karaoke queen
People who have heard Kotb's soothing voice on television probably won't be surprised
to learn that she also enjoys singing, although she claims not to be very good at it.
She told Good Housekeeping,
"I'm a huge karaoke person even though I have the worst singing voice…
When you love doing something, who cares?"
"Some boys kiss me.
Some boys hug me.
I think they're okay.
Okay!"
Hands on the wheel, Hoda!!
She's pretty messy
She might look put together on television, but in real life Kotb is far from organized.
She wrote in Modern Luxury,
"I'm in my apartment looking at my kitchen and it's revealing.
Every cabinet door is open and has been since the last time I needed something inside.
In this drawer: two old BlackBerry phones, a turkey baster, an old checkbook.
Is that a driver's license?
Yes — expired in 2013.
I think I'm just wired to be disorganized."
And her purse is even more chaotic.
"Jammed in it right now is a shawl, Coffee-mate, Mindy Kaling's book, about eight headphones,
an orange, a fleur-de-lis ornament, a million contact lenses, a Dum Dum lollipop and on
and on."
Sweet tooth
Kotb also admitted in Modern Luxury that she can't help but indulge her sweet tooth.
"I will eat an entire box of Entenmann's black-and-white cookies, and to save myself from scarfing
down the second box, I escort it out of my apartment and give it to the first person
I see."
So how does she exercise self control?
Simple: she poisons her own food.
"Even if I find the willpower to throw away something sugary that I really want, it's
not enough that it's sitting atop the other garbage in the trash can.
I have to douse it with a cleaning agent — most often Windex — so that I will get sick if
I eat it."
Sports fanatic
It might surprise some people to now that Kotb is a huge sports fan.
She revealed in her autobiography that she got it from her parents, who has recent immigrants
attended a football game and began
"...absorbing every detail about this very American sport — one they would come to
love for life."
When it was announced that Kotb would be one of NBC's three hosts at the opening ceremonies
of the 2016 Summer Olympics, she was thrilled.
She told the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
"It's a little daunting.
To be part of the coverage is beyond an honor…
I'm so excited."
She chooses joy
In an interview with InsideChic, Kotb revealed some of her secrets to staying happy.
She said that the key is to remind herself of how blessed she is.
"First thing in the morning, I try to scribble in a journal real quick, literally for 10
minutes or less.
I write three things I'm grateful for and one great thing that happened in the last
24 hours."
She added that
"...literally if you write down those three things your brain starts to change... you
start thinking about the positive.
You start looking for the good things in the course of your day."
We know one thing we're grateful for at the start of each day.
Thanks, Hoda!
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