Hoda Kotb has opened up about the special way her best friend showed up for her while mourning the loss of her father in college.
Today co-host Abdel Kader and Sameha Kotb’s parents lived in Egypt before emigrating to the US to raise their family. She was a junior at Virginia Tech when her father died of a heart attack at age 51.
In a clip from the show posted to Instagram, she shared how her longtime friend Peggy Fox failed to get a class by her side when school became too much for her.
“My dad graduated, and I was in a class and I didn’t care about my class, I didn’t care about anything,” Kotb, 59, told her co-host Jenna Bush Hager.
Hoda Kotb, 59, revealed that her good friend Peggy Fox skipped a class to sit next to her after her father died
Kotb was a junior at Virginia Tech when her father, Abdel Kader Kotb, died of a heart attack at age 51. She is pictured with her father and sister, Hala.
“There was a quiz, and I remember looking at the teacher and the teacher said, ‘You have to take the quiz.’ And I didn’t feel it, and I said, “I’m leaving.”‘
The teacher warned her that she would fail class if she didn’t take the quiz, but she grabbed her backpack and walked out anyway.
“I felt someone (other) pick up their backpack and I just kept walking. I didn’t say a word,” she said. ‘I walked all the way to the duck pond, which was a very quiet place, and I sat on a picnic table, on top of it, and she sat next to me.”
Kotb, who is still good friends with Fox, explained that the simple gesture was just what she needed at the time.
“When I was ready, I said, ‘I can’t believe you just failed that class with me.’ She said, “Well, I wanted to be here with you,” she said. ‘That is it.’ Not “Do you want me?” do you need me?’ It’s like you turn around and they’re sitting there.’
Kotb previously paid tribute to her late father on the show in June 2020, saying he was a “larger than life figure to her and her siblings, Hala and Abel.”
“He just led by example. He was someone who was such a hard worker,” she recalled of her father, who worked as a fossil energy specialist. “They came here from Egypt, you know, and they really made their lives.”
She explained that her father eventually became president of his own company, but she always thought he was the vice president of the country.
The Today star (pictured in college) recalled how she struggled with her grief as she walked out of class on the day of the quiz, despite the teacher’s warning that if she left she would fail
Kotb said Fox walked her outside and sat next to her on a picnic bench until she was ready to talk. The two are still good friends (pictured together)
“I used to dream that my father couldn’t be the real president, but he could be the vice president—because he wasn’t born here,” she said. “I remember waking up convinced that my father was vice president.”
“He just taught us about hard work, how to get it done, and we all believed we could be anything and do anything,” she added. “That’s what they taught us, my father and mother.”
Kotb noted that she still dreams about her father and thinks about him more than thirty years after his death.
Speaking to DailyMail.com in 2018, she shared how remembering her father influenced her decision to become a mother in her 50s.
Kotb and her former fiancé, Joel Schiffman, have two adopted daughters, Haley Joy, six, and Hope Catherine, four.
“I think any older mom who says she hasn’t worked it out is probably lying. I’ve definitely thought about it and what it means. What it means for the future,” she said. “But my father died when he was in his early fifties and I was in my early twenties.”
“I was a junior in college. It was sudden, scary and horrible,” she added. “But the seeds he laid for me during those twenty years remain with me today. The things he taught me are still part of me now.”