Hoda Kotb, 62, reveals shock romance with 'very handsome' new man... four years after ending engagement to Joel Schiffman

Hoda Kotb shocked her former Today show co-hosts on Friday after revealing that she may have finally found a romantic connection with a new man.

The 62-year-old, who split from her fiance Joel Schiffman in 2022, told Sheinelle Jones and Jenna Bush Hager that she recently met a 'very handsome' man while on a flight. 

'Oh, this is romantic! Should we try to find him?' Jones gushed.

Kotb then shocked the two Today anchors by revealing that she and the mystery man had such a strong connection during their brief encounter that it left them both in tears.

'It was the weirdest connection in the world. We were both crying,' she shared.

'It was strange. You know, when you have one of those... everything is firing on all cylinders?' she continued. 

'He kept saying, "Is this a dream? Is this real?"' she recalled.

But despite their explosive chemistry, the pair went their separate ways after the flight, only to then serendipitously meet again at a business conference. 

'Our company went to Cannes so we could talk about our company, and he was in the audience, randomly,' she revealed. 

The pair greeted each other, but Kotb admits, 'But then, it all kind of just went away.'

However, Kotb said that she and the mystery man swapped numbers and have started texting again.

'Look. There are connections. I don't know what it is,' she shared, before calling him 'very cute' and 'very handsome'. 

Kotb started dating financier Joel Schiffman in 2013 and they eventually adopted two daughters together. 

They announced that they were preparing to get married in November 2019, but in January 2022, after nearly a decade together, they went their separate ways.

In her self-improvement memoir, Jump and Find Joy, the popular TV star reflected on what led to their breakup.

Kotb wrote that she felt like 'everything had shifted' after she attended a one-week retreat at the Hoffman Institute, which helps people 'uncover their most powerful self.'

She explained that she had an 'epiphany' during the retreat and began to feel like she was 'a total phony in her relationship' and that things suddenly felt 'different'.

Kotb also called the decision to split from Schiffman 'one of the best 10-second decisions' of her life.

While chatting with Today about it further, Kotb said: 'I think sometimes you know that a relationship is good, but... it's not deepening.

'So, you continue along on the relationship. I think the truth of the matter is ... I'm an optimist. When you're an optimist, you want to make things work, and sometimes, things don't,' she continued. 

She admitted that she 'loved Joel then' and still loves him now, but that it had morphed into 'a different kind of love'.

'It just was an epiphany for me, and it took courage for me to say it. And when I did, I felt like, "Okay, there it is",' she explained.

Kotb insisted that she and Schiffman 'have always been connected and always will be,' but explained that she believes they are better off as friends.

'You can still love and admire someone and not want to be in a relationship, a long-term relationship that way,' she said.

'We will co-parent in a beautiful way, but I also think our "us" is more of a, like, we're dear friends now,' she continued. 

'And that's beautiful, and it's enjoyable, and it feels right. We were laughing the other day just in hysterics, and I feel like this is the right relationship for us to have.'