Hoda Kotb spent last week doing something a lot of divorced parents will recognize: standing on a sidewalk with her ex, phone camera rolling, watching two kids walk into a new school year. On September 8, she posted photos of herself and ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman sending daughters Haley, 9, and Hope, 7, off for their first day of fourth and second grade. It’s a sweet, low-key moment — and it’s also got fans typing a very specific question into Google again: what is Hoda Kotb net worth in 2026, more than a year after she left the Today anchor desk?
Kotb captioned the photos “It’s here! First day of school. 4th and 2nd grade! Whaaaatttt?” — the kind of caption any parent could have written. Schiffman, who was engaged to Kotb from 2013 until they called off the wedding in January 2022, showed up anyway, because that’s apparently how they’ve decided to do this. Co-parenting, front-row seats to the milestones, cameras optional.
It’s a nice reminder that Kotb built a life well beyond the anchor desk long before she actually left it. And that life, financially speaking, adds up to a pretty specific number.
It also says something about how Kotb has handled fame generally. She’s never been the anchor who disappears behind a polished, guarded persona. Viewers have watched her cry on air, laugh too hard at her own jokes, and talk openly about fertility struggles, cancer, and single motherhood long before “authenticity” became a marketing buzzword networks chased on purpose.
Hoda Kotb Net Worth: A Quick Snapshot
Most financial trackers put Hoda Kotb net worth at around $30 million as of 2026, a figure repeated across outlets like Celebrity Net Worth and Parade. A handful of sites push the estimate higher, into the $40 million to $80 million range, depending on how aggressively they count real estate, book royalties, and endorsement income. The truth likely sits closer to the conservative end — network anchors rarely disclose exact figures, and estimates are built from public salary reports, not tax returns.
What isn’t in dispute is where the money came from. Nearly three decades at NBC News, a run as one of morning television’s most recognizable faces, and a side career as a published author all fed into the same bank account. Parade’s breakdown of her finances traces most of it back to two sources: her Today salary and her books.
The Today Show Career and Salary Behind the Hoda Kotb Net Worth Story
Kotb’s path to the anchor chair started far from it. She joined NBC News in 1998 as a correspondent for Dateline NBC, grinding through assignments most viewers never connected to the woman who’d eventually host their mornings. In 2007, she moved into the fourth hour of Today alongside Kathie Lee Gifford, a pairing built on wine-hour candor that turned into one of daytime’s most durable partnerships.
That fourth-hour gig looked like a lighter, lower-stakes assignment next to the flagship broadcast, but it quietly built Kotb’s entire brand. Audiences got used to her unscripted, occasionally chaotic chemistry with Gifford, and later with Jenna Bush Hager after Gifford exited in 2019. By the time NBC needed a replacement for its top morning slot, Kotb wasn’t an unknown quantity — she was already one of the most trusted faces in the building.
Everything changed in 2018. After Matt Lauer’s abrupt firing, NBC named Kotb co-anchor of the flagship Today show alongside Savannah Guthrie — a promotion that came with a reported $7 million annual salary, matching Guthrie’s pay at the time. Kotb was candid about the gap between her new paycheck and Lauer’s old one, telling Rolling Stone flatly, “I’m not making Matt Lauer money.”
That changed over time. By the years leading up to her departure, multiple entertainment outlets reported her Today salary had climbed toward $20 million annually, reflecting both her seniority and the network’s reliance on her as a ratings anchor. Kotb announced in September 2024 that she’d step down sometime in 2025, and she signed off from the anchor desk in January 2025 after roughly five years co-anchoring the broadcast.
Dateline NBC and Her Journalism Roots
It’s easy to forget, watching her chat about celebrity gossip and cocktail recipes, that Kotb came up as a hard-news correspondent. Her Dateline NBC years put her in war zones, disaster zones, and plenty of rooms nobody wanted to sit in for a story. She’s said in interviews she suspected she was, for a stretch, the lowest-paid correspondent on the show — a detail that makes her later salary climb feel a little sweeter.
That journalism background still surfaces. Kotb has continued contributing reported segments to Today even after stepping away from the anchor chair, and she’s returned for occasional high-profile assignments, including parade coverage and breaking coverage when the newsroom has needed her.
A Bestselling Author With Multiple Hit Books
Broadcasting paid the bills, but books padded the account in a different way. Kotb has published seven books, several of them New York Times bestsellers, starting with her 2010 memoir “Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer and Kathie Lee.” She followed it with “Ten Years Later,” “Where We Belong,” “You Are My Happy,” and the children’s book “I’ve Loved You Since Forever,” which became a particular fan favorite according to reader rankings on Goodreads.
Her most recent title, “Hope Is a Rainbow,” arrived in March 2024, named for her younger daughter. Publishing deals, advances, and royalties from a run of bestsellers over 15 years represent a real and often underestimated slice of Hoda Kotb net worth — the kind of income stream that keeps paying out long after a book tour ends.
Life After Today: Podcasts, Joy 101, and Her 2026 Chapter
Leaving a chair she’d held for years didn’t mean leaving the business. Kotb has spent 2025 and 2026 building out “Making Space with Hoda Kotb,” a podcast built around candid conversations with guests like Savannah Guthrie, Taraji P. Henson, and Maria Shriver. She’s also launched Joy 101, a wellness platform offering guided meditations, expert seminars, and livestreams she co-hosts with former colleagues, including Jenna Bush Hager.
In 2026, that platform grew into its own show: “Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb,” a new podcast series produced with iHeartPodcasts, described as the next evolution of her push toward “positivity, presence and purpose.” She’s also kept a foot in NBC’s door, showing up for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Rose Parade, and select Today segments throughout the year, plus a commencement speech at Fordham University in May.
None of that is anchor-desk money, but it diversifies where Hoda Kotb net worth growth comes from going forward — podcasting deals, brand partnerships, and a wellness business she actually owns a piece of, rather than a salary tied to one network’s budget.
Joel Schiffman, Haley, Hope, and Family Life
Kotb and Schiffman, a former investment banker, got engaged in 2013 after meeting on a blind date. They adopted daughter Haley Joy in 2017 and Hope Catherine in 2019, building a family before calling off their wedding plans in January 2022. Kotb explained at the time that they’d decided they worked better “as friends and parents” than as a married couple.
That arrangement has held up in public view ever since, most visibly in moments like this month’s back-to-school photos. Fans and outlets covering the story, including Today.com’s own coverage, framed it as a genuine, low-drama co-parenting update rather than a rekindled romance — just two parents showing up for their kids.
Kotb isn’t the only morning-news face turning airtime into a diversified fortune. For a look at how a different network personality built comparable wealth, see our breakdown of Stephanie Ramos net worth.
Quick Facts About Hoda Kotb
Here’s the rundown for anyone catching up: Kotb is 61, born in Norman, Oklahoma, and raised partly in Egypt and Virginia. She joined NBC News in 1998, co-anchored Today’s flagship broadcast from 2018 to January 2025, and has published seven books. She’s a breast cancer survivor, an adoptive mother of two daughters, and, as of 2026, the host of two active podcasts alongside her wellness platform, Joy 101.
FAQs About Hoda Kotb Net Worth
What is Hoda Kotb net worth in 2026? Most estimates place it around $30 million, based largely on her Today Show salary history and book royalties, though some trackers estimate higher.
Did Hoda Kotb get engaged again to Joel Schiffman? No. The two remain broken off since January 2022 but continue co-parenting their daughters publicly and amicably.
Why did Hoda Kotb leave the Today show? She announced in September 2024 she planned to spend more time with her daughters and pursue other projects, officially departing the anchor desk in January 2025.
What is Hoda Kotb doing now? She hosts the podcasts “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” and “Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb,” runs her Joy 101 wellness platform, and makes occasional appearances with NBC.
How does Hoda Kotb’s fortune compare to her former co-anchors? It’s in a similar range to Savannah Guthrie’s, though slightly behind hosts with longer prime-time or syndication deals. Book royalties are the biggest differentiator, since not every anchor doubles as a bestselling author.
Hoda Kotb Net Worth: The Bottom Line
Add it all up — nearly 30 years at NBC, a Today Show salary that climbed from $7 million to a reported $20 million annually, seven books with several bestsellers among them, and a growing post-anchor business built around podcasts and wellness — and the widely cited $30 million Hoda Kotb net worth figure looks less like a headline number and more like the sum of a genuinely long career.
What happens next is the more interesting question. Between Joy 101, her podcast slate, and whatever comes from moments like this week’s back-to-school reunion with Schiffman, Hoda Kotb net worth in 2026 is likely still climbing, even without a daily anchor chair attached to it. For a woman who once wondered if she was the lowest-paid person in her newsroom, that’s a fairly remarkable turn.
More net worth breakdowns worth reading:
Mat Ishbia Net Worth 2026: Why the Suns Owner Lost $3 Billion This Year and Is Still Worth $6 Billion
