Hoda Kotb Appears Distracted In First Appearance On 'Today' Since Mystery Family Illness

Hoda Kotb has returned to the “Today” show.

The co-anchor of the famous morning show appeared alongside her co-host, Savannah Guthrie, following her own illness.

Fans were very concerned about Hoda’s well-being after she had been missing from the show since February 17th.

“Hello, friends Everybody’s wondering where @hodakotb is She’s been out a week. The best thing to do at this time is to keep her in your prayers. SHE’LL BE BACK! I’m sure,” one person tweeted.

One worried viewer wrote, “When will you be back??”

“We miss you… everything seems so secretive, hope everything is good,” another wrote.

“Where is Hoda Kotb why she out for almost 2 weeks. Please someone tell us if everything is ok?  Or is she on vacation?” this viewer asked.

“Today” anchors confirmed Hoda was OK; however, she was handling family health issue.

During her return, Hoda addressed her absence telling viewers “My youngest Hope was in the ICU for a few days, in the hospital for a little more than a week. I am so grateful she is home. She is back home. I was waiting for that day to come, and we are watching her closely. I am just so happy.”

It makes sense why she posted a cryptic quote with her daughter’s name in it.

The post read, “Choose Hope.”

Today she posted another message about ‘hope’ which read, “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.”

The quote was from the late Christopher Reeve.

She captioned it, “Happy Monday xo.”

Unfortunately, Hoda seemed very distracted, for obvious reasons, during her return.

Guthrie tried to rally her during a segment about Girl Scout Cookies comparing her pink suit to the “Raspberry Rally” cookie.

Hoda appeared very disinterested during the segment and looked straight at the camera as if she was saying, “Is this over?”

She did not disclose what her daughter’s illness was, but she did tell Guthrie, “You know what I realized too, Savannah, is when your child is ill, the amount of gratitude that you have for the people who helped you out. And so I am grateful for the doctors at Weill Cornell who were amazing and the nurses and I’m grateful to my family and to friends like you who were there every single day. So I want to, I want to say you for that. I love you.”

Her co-host responded, “I love you too. You have a lot of friends out there.”

Guthrie recently battled COVID and was whisked off-air after the first 30 minutes.

At around 9 a.m., Jones revealed why Guthrie had to leave quickly and abruptly.

“It has been an interesting morning for us. As we said, Savannah left early. She wasn’t feeling great, so she took a COVID test, [and] it came back positive,” Sheinelle Jones revealed.

She noted that Guthrie “rushed home to rest up,” before adding, “So, Savannah, we love you. Wishing you a speedy recovery.”

This is Guthrie’s third battle with COVID-19 after contracting it in January 2022 and May 2022.