Morning talk show host, Hoda Kotb is a mom who’s got a master plan for her two young children and it doesn’t include watching movies for pleasure or to pass the time.
According to People, during an episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna, while discussing the upcoming Disney live-action reimagining of The Little Mermaid that features Halle Bailey, she revealed that her adopted daughters have never actually watched a movie.
Her co-host, Jenna Bush Hager
stated that she was anxious to go with her three children, son Henry “Hal” Harold, 3, and daughters Margaret “Mila” Laura, 9, and Poppy Louise, 7, to see the movie. She then asks Kotb, “Have you been to the theater?”“No, and my kids have never seen a movie,” Kotb said.
In shock by what Kotb had just said, Hager exclaims, “Wait, they’ve never seen a movie?”
Kotb explained that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she never had the opportunity to take her two children, Haley
, who is five years old, and the younger daughter, Hope who is three years old, to the movies.“They’ve never seen a movie on television?” Hager asked.
“Well, no. Not a full movie. No. They haven’t seen a movie,” Kotb stated.
Hager then gave Kotb a recommendation for her to take her two children to see the Broadway production of Puss in Boots.
“No
judgment, y’all, but you got to take them!” Hager said. “I think you should start not with that because then they’re going to think all movies are that. I think you need to see Puss and Boots in the theater.”“Puss in Boots? Okay,” Kotb replied.
She became a mother at the age of 52 back in 2017, when she adopted her two daughters. She had previously battled breast cancer and went through a divorce that had her feeling like she would never be a mother.
In an interview with People, she said, “I always imagined family as my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister. I envisioned it that way until I was 50. Imagine someone saying, ‘Hey, guess what? You’re actually going to have a whole other family.’ It still surprises me! It delights me to know that I have Haley and Hope.”