Kathie Lee Gifford praises Hoda Kotb for 'grace and kindness' in Joel Schiffman split

Kathie Lee Gifford is supporting her friend and former colleague Hoda Kotb after the "Today" show host shared news that she and longtime partner Joel Schiffman are splitting up.

Kotb made the announcement Monday on "Today with Hoda and Jenna" after some viewers wondered why she was no longer wearing her engagement ring.

"Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and really meaningful conversations over the holidays, and we decided that we're better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple," Hoda said on the show. "So we decided that we are going to start this new year and begin it kind of on our new path as loving parents to our adorable, delightful children, and as friends."

When the "Hoda and Jenna" Instagram page shared the news, Gifford responded in the comments with a sweet message for Kotb.

"My darling Hoda, I am truly so proud of the way you have handled a very difficult and painful decision," she wrote. "As usual you did it with grace and kindness. May God bless you and your precious girls and Joel as well as you continue down this thing called life. I love you."

Kotb said Monday nothing happened to cause their split and noted that talking about something like this publicly was a little "awkward" and "weird." She added that though she struggled with how to speak about the split, she knew that many women would understand what she was going through.

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"I feel like often we share the joyous pieces of our life, the engagement and all the fun … and I share the adoption of my children and all the joy and all the beautiful parts, and then the difficult parts sometimes you want to forget about. You want to erase them you don't want to share them because that's not part of a pretty picture," Kotb said.

She continued: "I think a lot of women know what this feels like in this moment to be changing course in life and I feel really brave in this moment which is sort of a strange feeling to feel."

Kotb told her co-host Jenna Bush Hager she felt a sense of relief sharing the news with everyone and living in her truth.

"Sometimes in your life, you just have to say the truth. And sometimes you can carry it, you can pretend and do things, and you're not being yourself, and you ask yourself, 'Am I just being optimistic?" Kotb said. "Sometimes you realize optimism is sometimes trying to put a circle in a square, and sometimes it just doesn't work. And it's OK, and to be able to acknowledge it and say to yourself, 'OK, this is the path that we're going to be taking from here on.'"

The "Today" anchor announced her engagement to Schiffman in November 2019 on the show.

Her longtime boyfriend had proposed on a beach vacation and her fellow hosts were surprised by the news; Kotb hid the ring from her co-workers until that segment.

'I didn't know I could love him more': Hoda Kotb gushes about Joel Schiffman's proposal

"We went for our usual vacation, and we ended up having a little dinner on the beach," Kotb explained. "We were done with the dinner, I was eating churros, like licking the bottom of the bowl, and he was like, 'I have something else I'd like to say.' He said some beautiful things and then he got down on one knee."

The couple shares two daughters together: Haley Joy, 5, and Hope Catherine, 2.

Contributing: Hannah Yasharoff

More: Kathie Lee Gifford is 'thrilled' about Hoda Kotb's new baby girl, Hope Catherine

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hoda Kotb, Joel Schiffman split: Kathie Lee Gifford shows support