NEWSHoda Kotb Felt 'Influenced' to Marry Ex-Husband Burzis Kanga Because It 'Seemed Like the Logical Next Step'
Hoda Kotb and ex-husband Burzis Kanga were married from 2005 to 2008.
Sept. 23 2025, Updated 11:48 a.m. ET
Though Hoda Kotb insisted she doesn't "regret" her short-lived marriage to ex Burzis Kanga, the TV star admitted she didn't get hitched for the right reasons.
Kotb opened up about her past romances in her new memoir Jump and Find Joy: Embracing Change in Every Season of Life, out on Tuesday, September 23.
Hoda Kotb Reflects on First Marriage
In Hoda Kotb's memoir, she admitted she felt 'influenced' to marry Burzis Kanga in 2005.
In the tome, the Today alum, 61, admitted she tied the knot with tennis coach Kanga in 2005 mostly to follow societal norms.
"We let the idea that we should be married by now influence us," Kotb shared. "So, instead of us taking the opportunity to part ways and stay solo, he came out to visit and proposed during a Central Park horse ride … and I said yes.”
"I didn’t jump into marriage as much as I slipped into it. We are comfortable together, it was time, and it seemed like the logical step," the author explained.
The mom-of-two acknowledged the relationship "wasn’t really right for either" of them, and she always knew "it wasn’t going to go the distance."
"I don’t regret that time in my life because every experience gets you a little bit closer to where you are today — where you were meant to be," the journalist stated. "But I bet if you could have paused us midair, as we were slipping into marriage, to ask, ‘Hey, is this what you really want?’ We would have looked at each other and said. ‘Naaah.'"
The pair ended things in 2008.
Hoda Kotb and Joel Schiffman Call Off Wedding
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The author and Joel Schiffman called off their engagement in 2022 after he proposed in 2019.
Last year, she revealed in an interview that she's open to marrying again, but this time around, she wants a "small wedding," describing her first as "not small" but not "huge."
Kotb nearly married ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman after getting engaged in 2019, but the two called it off in 2022 after around eight years together.
Amicable Co-Parents
The TV broadcaster insisted 'nothing happened' that sparked her split from Joel Schiffman.
"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," Kotb explained on Today at the time.
The exes are still on good terms and co-parent their two daughters.
"Its not like something happened," she stated. "They say sometimes relationships are meant to be there for a reason, a season or a lifetime, this was for a season."
The two now co-parent their two adopted daughters.
Kotb hasn't been in a public romance since their split, though her famous friends are always talking about trying to set her up.
