Hoda Kotb Shares Rare Dating Update After Meeting 'Really Cute' Single Man on Plane

Single Hoda Kotb opened up about a new guy she hit it off with while traveling.

"I did meet someone on a plane when I was flying somewhere," Kotb, 62, said during a guest appearance on the Friday, August 21, episode of Today With Jenna & Sheinelle.

Though Kotb was firm that it wasn't a "real love connection," she went on to describe the unusual emotional encounter they experienced during their first meeting.

"It was the weirdest connection in the world," the media personality recounted. "We were both crying. It was strange. You know, when you have one of those [conversations where] everything is firing on all cylinders?"

The man she met was equally taken aback by the meeting, as she recalled him uttering, "He kept saying, ‘Is this a dream? Is this real?’"

Though the pair went their separate ways after the flight, Kotb ran into him again while in Cannes, France, with her wellness company.

"Our company went to Cannes so we could talk about our company, and he was in the audience, randomly," she explained. "He goes, ‘Hi,’ and I said, ‘Hi.'"

Though it fizzled out for a minute, the TV star, who described the guy as "really cute" and "very handsome," revealed they have been "texting recently."

"Look. There are connections," Kotb continued, confirming he was single. "I don’t know what it is."

Kotb hasn't publicly dated anyone since her 2022 split from former fiancé Joel Schiffman after eight years together.

"Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and meaningful conversations over the holidays and we decided that we're 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 adorable, delightful children, and as friends," she said during an episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna.

The pair continue to co-parent their two daughters, Haley, 9, and Hope, 7.

Kotb previously said in a May 2025 interview that dating wasn't her main priority as she navigated other major life changes like moving her family to the suburbs and her daughters starting a new school.

"I've been really getting my sea legs," she told People at the time. "When it happens will be the time it’s supposed to happen."

“When things are supposed to end, they end. And when things are supposed to begin, they begin. But you have to be wide open because if you’re not, it’s not happening,” the Today alum continued. “So I think that chapter is yet to come, but I know it’s coming. And I’m excited for that chapter.”