Hoda Kotb takes time off from ‘Today’ after daughter’s ‘really scary’ hospitalization

Co-host Hoda Kotb was absent from “Today” this week after her youngest daughter returned home from spending several days in an intensive care unit.

Savannah Guthrie opened Tuesday’s show by saying, “Hoda is on vacation.” She sat alongside Craig Melvin, who also filled in for Kotb on Monday.

Kotb’s vacation coincides with both of her daughters’ spring breaks, and she is spending the time off with family, according to People. Kotb is mother to daughters Hope, 3, and Haley, 6.

It was not clear when Kotb would return from vacation. NBC did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

The Emmy-winning TV personality had also taken time off in late February and early March while daughter Hope was hospitalized for more than a week. Her co-hosts had previously explained to concerned viewers that Kotb was “OK” and her absence was due to “a family health matter.” She had been absent from the show from Feb. 17 to March 6.

“Little Hope had to go to the hospital and she was in the ICU for a few days and then in the hospital for another week and it was really scary,” Kotb said during her March 6 return to “Today.” “She’s vibrant and brilliant. She’s home. She’s home. She’s home. I’m over the moon that she’s home.”

Kotb’s other show, “Hoda and Jenna,” ran prerecorded episodes with co-host Jenna Bush Hager also on vacation.

When Kotb returned earlier this month, she opened up to Hager about her fear when her daughter was hospitalized.

“It’s funny, I always talk about gratitude, gratitude, but I found myself not living in that lane because I was scared,” Kotb said. “And then I decided, you know what, let me think about this for a minute. I have a family who loves me. I have a little girl who’s home. I have a wonderful support system. I have doctors who would have done anything to make everything better, and they did. So sometimes you talk about gratitude and when you’re pushed to the limit you’re like, do I feel it?”