Kathie Lee Gifford has praised Hoda Kobb for the "grace and kindness" she showed when ending her engagement.
The 57-year-old star revealed on 'Today' on Monday (31.01.22) that she and her fiance Joel Schiffman - with whom she has daughters Haley, four, and two-year-old Hope - have gone their separate ways, and she's receiving support from her co-host to navigate her way into the next stage of her life.
After 'Today' shared a portion of Hoda's statement on their Instagram page, Kathie commented: "My darling Hoda, I am truly so proud of the way you have handled a very difficult and painful decision.
"As usual you did it with grace and kindness. May God bless you and your precious girls and Joel as well as you continue down this thing called life. I love you."
Hoda announced on the show she and Joel, 63, had split two years after getting engaged because they decided they are "better off friends".
She said: “Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we are better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple, so we decided we are going to start this new year on our new path as loving parents to our adorably delightful children and as friends.
“Its not like something happened. They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, a season or a lifetime, this was for a season.”
The pair had been planning to have a destination wedding until the coronavirus pandemic scuppered their plans.
In October 2020, Hoda said: "We were supposed to have it a month from right now. I mean, that was our big master plan, Joel and me.
"And we were going to do it at a tropical destination and then we decided we were going to wait... Who knows when people are going to be flying or feel comfortable flying?
"So, I thought, 'Is that a good idea or should we just maybe do a small wedding?' So, we may."
