Hoda Kotb is feeling good about turning 59.
"Here’s the great thing that I realized: I turned 59 this year and I am so happy to be 59 this year," Hoda said on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna Aug. 14. Her birthday was Aug. 9.
"I feel so good about it," she beamed. "If you’re worried about aging, and I know that aging’s a thing, 59 is amazing."
She said she welcomed the new year with her mom, her siblings and her kids and nieces, who all stayed at her place to celebrate. TODAY also shared cake with her live on the air Aug. 4, a few days before her birthday.
"We had cakes and parties and we celebrated and it was great," she said. "There were air mattresses and people stepping over people and not enough towels. There's no food. The usual."
Hoda recalled closing her eyes to think about what life had given her.
"I was thinking to myself, 'I’m 59 years old. I have two incredible kids, I’ve got my mom here, my sister, my brother, my nieces, my sister-in-law,' and I kept thinking to myself, ‘I’m smiling. I'm closing my eyes and I'm smiling.' And if you do that, you know that there's a lot of good things ahead. I feel like this year's going to be fantastic."
She said she doesn't shy away from aging.
"I'm not like, 'Ouu,'" she said with random babbles imitating the discomfort some people feel with aging.
"Haley was screaming, 'My mom's 59.' I was like, 'Yes, I am. I am. I am.' And I'm so glad that I get to be this," she said.
Hoda explained that she's living for the now of it all.
"I was thinking about how important it is just to think about your life daily instead of down the road," she said. "I feel like that's what I've been doing lately."
Jenna Bush Hager applauded her co-host for the way she feels about turning another year older.
"Instead of being filled with fear, you're filled with the awesomeness of it," Jenna championed.
Hoda then continued to say that she's closed her eyes to envision what her 60s would be like, and that she "feels so full."
Jenna expressed how much she needed Hoda's pep talk, and Hoda then reaffirmed her first point: "59 is glorious."
