Hoda Kotb Reveals the Romantic Way Joel Schiffman Asked Her to Be His Wife

From Prevention

• Hoda Kotb announced her engagement to Joel Schiffman on Monday's episode of Today.

• Joel proposed to Hoda over the weekend during a vacation to Mexico.

• Hoda and Joel have been together since 2013, and they adopted two daughters together, Haley Joy and Hope Catherine.

After nearly seven years of dating, Hoda Kotb will tie the knot with longtime boyfriend Joel Schiffman. Kotb surprised her Today coworkers with her engagement announcement on Monday's episode of the show.

"A friend of ours asked me to let you guys in on a secret. I'll give you her initials: Her initials are Hoda Kotb and she's engaged!" Hoda said to the the Today cast, who collectively screamed "WHAT!"

"What are you talking about! What!" Savannah Guthrie exclaimed.

"Whoa, I didn't even notice! When did you put that on! Was that on the whole time?" Craig Melvin asked of Hoda's gorgeous ring.

"I just put it on!" she replied, announcing that Joel proposed to her over the weekend during their drip to Mexico. Hoda has been with the financier since 2013, and they share two adopted daughters, Haley Joy and Hope Catherine.

"I knew it! I knew this wasn't just an ordinary trip to Mexico," Melvin said, while giving Hoda a big bear hug. "Congratulations, Joel!" Jenna Bush Hager said. "It was a good trip!"

Meanwhile, Savannah grabbed Hoda's hand to get a closer look at the ring. "Wow. Oh my gosh, that is beautiful! Joel!" she said of the rock on Hoda's left hand. Hoda then revealed the romantic details of the proposal.

"We went to our usual vacation, and we ended up having a little dinner on the beach. We were done with the dinner—I was eating churros and licking the bottom bowl," she told the Today cast. "Then he said, 'I have something else to say,' and said some beautiful things. Then he got down on one knee and said, 'Will you be my wife?'"

"What did the girls say!" Jenna asked, wondering if Hoda and Joel told 2-year-old Haley and 5-month-old Hope about the good news. "Well, how are we going to explain, your parents are going to get married. We're still trying figure out how to explain that," Hoda replied.

After Hoda told her romantic engagement story, the Today cast was wondering how the Today with Hoda & Jenna co-host was able to keep the secret from her co-workers all morning. "My heart has literally been pounding!" she said, implying that it was not easy. "Now ours are pounding, too," Savannah replied.

"And you've got two built in flower girls, Al Roker says of Hoda and Joel's daughters. But it's Jenna who actually answers: "Who, Savannah and me?" she asks jokingly, and Al hilariously replied that they'd probably be looking for someone a little bit younger.

Then, Al asked if Hoda had any clue that Joel was going to propose on the trip, but she said it was a complete surprise. "I was totally shocked. I had no idea it was coming. Zero," she said. "He's good! He had a good poker face."

Back in September, Hoda opened up on Today with Hoda & Jenna about the first time Joel told her he loved her. "I started to think I didn't know what I was looking for in a man," Hoda said. "Sometimes you think, 'Well, you'll know it when you see it, and there'll be chemistry,' and you hope everything else will work."

"I always get emotional if someone's truthful, really truthful, and I feel it. And I remember he [Joel] looked me in the eyes, and I started crying," she told Maria Shriver while choking up. "It was the day he said he was in love with me. It was a good day."

"After he said it, I remember just sitting there because I wanted to feel it for a minute," she said on Today with Hoda and Jenna. “Like, just to sit with that for a minute—somebody saying, you know, he just said, ‘I love you.' And I paused, and he goes, ‘Don’t leave me hanging out here in the abyss.'"

Hoda and Joel met at a book signing event in 2013. They moved in together in 2016, and then adopted their first daughter Haley in 2017. This spring, they welcomed Hope and became a family of four.

We couldn't be happier for the couple. Congratulations, Hoda and Joel! We can't wait for the wedding.

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