Hoda Kotb Shares How Cancer Diagnosis Changed Her Career

Hoda Kotb told viewers this week that her cancer diagnosis played a big role in launching her career on Today.

Kotb has been a familiar face on our screens every morning since 2007, currently co-anchoring with Savannah Guthrie and co-hosting the fourth hour of Today with Jenna Bush Hager. This week Kotb shared her personal story on Today while discussing a new interview with Julia Louis Dreyfus, who has said she's "living more mindfully" since beating breast cancer.

Kotb said that her cancer diagnosis made her realize there's an end point to life, and she needed to be fearless and go for what she wanted. That realization prompted her to pitch herself to the "head honcho" as a co-host on Today, which was adding a new fourth hour.

"I remember going up the elevator and I'm like, 'I'm gonna ask for that job.' I would never have dreamt that I was even deserving of that job," she said.

When she landed the job in 2007—gaining a coveted spot on the lineup with Kathie Lee Gifford—Kotb was working for Dateline and saw herself as more of a people-pleaser.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, if I hadn't gotten sick, I wouldn't have been brave and if I wasn't gonna be brave, I wouldn't be there and I wouldn't be here,'" Kotb said. "Sometimes it’s like the scariest thing in the world becomes the thing that makes you fearless."

Hager applauded her co-host for not spending her time in "this fog of self-pity."

"Instead, you thought, 'How is this gonna change my life for the better?'" she remarked.

“I feel like anyone who’s ever gone through that cancer trip or journey, I feel like your life does snap into focus," Kotb agreed.

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