Hoda Kotb has got engaged.
The 55-year-old star delighted her co-hosts on ‘Today’ on Monday (26.11.19) when she revealed Joel Schiffman – who she has been in a relationship with for six years – popped the question while they were enjoying their "usual vacation" in Mexico.
Showing off her huge new ring, she said: "I have to tell you something. A friend of ours asked me to let you guys in on a secret. Her initials are Hoda Kotb and she’s engaged…
"We ended up having a little dinner on the beach. And he was like, ‘I have something else I would like to say,’ and he said some beautiful things, and then he got down on one knee. Then he said, ‘Would you be my wife?"’
Jenna Bush Hager, Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin and Al Roker all looked visibly surprised by the news and hugged their co-host as they congratulated her, before Hoda admitted she was just as shocked by the proposal.
She said: "I was totally shocked…He had a good poker face."
Hoda and Joel are parents to adopted children Haley, two, and baby Hope, and are not quite sure how to break the news of their engagement.
She laughed: "How am I going to explain, your parents are going to get married? We’re still trying to figure out that part."
The presenter is keen to get married "sooner than later" and she and her 61-year-old partner want to keep things simple.
Hoda told People magazine: "I sort of think we probably want to do it sooner than later, because what are we waiting for? And I kind of think we might do a destination wedding.
"We may go back to the place we were engaged. We haven’t thought about it too much, but we might do something like that. The place is special to us.
"Nothing we do is about bells and whistles in that way. So it always sort of meant something. Something special to our relationship, in Mexico.
"All I want it to be is fun and happy and I just want everybody to feel easy breezy. No coordinated bridesmaids. Come as you are. That’s the theme of the rest of my life."
Hoda Kotb engaged
