Hoda Kotb Empathizes with Selena Gomez After She Reveals She Can't Carry Her Own Children: 'Other Ways of Having a Family'

Mar. 15, 2025

Hoda Kotb, Selena Gomez.Photo:John Nacion/Getty; Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty

John Nacion/Getty; Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty

Hoda Kotbis relating toSelena Gomez, after she recently revealed she’sunable to carry her own childrendespite her strong desire to become a mother.

Speaking toVanity Fairfor the outlet’s October issue, published Monday, Sept. 9, the Rare Beauty founder, 32, revealed, “I unfortunately can’t carry my own children.” Kotb, 60, then touched on the topic on the Tuesday, Sept. 10 episode ofToday with Hoda and Jenna,recalling her personal experience welcoming her daughtersHaley, 7, and Hope,5, through adoption with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman.

“I think it was something that she dreamt would always happen,” the news anchor said of Gomez before thinking back to when she came to terms withher own fertility struggles.

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“You know how you kind of write your story in your head? [Like,] ‘I’ll get married sometime here or there or at this age, and then I’ll have kids,’ and you can kind of imagine it?” she asked co-hostJenna Bush Hager. “I think that was probably the toughest part, is like, you know that you can see it.”

Kotb then called theOnly Murders in the Buildingactress “mature” and “cool” for her impressive reaction to the grief that comes with this tough revelation.

“But because she’s so mature and just cool, she said she had to grieve for a while, but then she realized there are other ways of having a family,” Kotb shared. “And she says she does plan to start with surrogacy or adoption.”

Thinking of her loving family of three, theTodayco-host added, “Families come in so many different shapes and sizes,” and regardless of how your kids are welcomed, “They are your kids, a hundred thousand percent.”

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Selena Gomez.Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty

Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty

Gomez has previously spoken about suffering from complications with lupus, which she was diagnosed with in 2015. She also revealed her bipolar diagnosis in April 2020 during an episode of Miley Cyrus' Instagram Live show Bright Minded.

She added, “[But] I’m in a much better place with that. I find it a blessing that there are wonderful people willing to do surrogacy or adoption, which are both huge possibilities for me.”

source: people.com