Hoda Kotb, 62, reveals why she’s ‘scared’ of dating ‘cute’ mystery man she met on a plane

Hoda Kotb is afraid of a potential new romance.

The former “Today” show host, 62, admitted she was “scared” about pursuing a relationship with a mystery man she met on a plane over the summer – despite his repeated attempts to take him on a date.

“He asked me to meet with him several times, and I didn’t,” Kotb revealed during her appearance on “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle” on Monday.

The reporter explained that although the two continued to text, she was reluctant to take their relationship to the next level.

“I’ll tell you why I haven’t done it. First of all, I’m probably scared. Second of all, I think I like flirting that you don’t know what it is but might be something,” she confessed.

“And sometimes once you know it’s not something, then it’s not that fun anymore, so I think I just keep it as a thing.”

Despite her hesitation, Kotb – who split from her former fiancé Joel Schiffman in 2022 – insisted she hasn’t given up on finding love.

“But really, if I had to swallow a truth pill right now, I believe I’m 62 years old, I have two young children and I believe the love part of my life is a part that’s coming,” she said. “I don’t say, ‘Well.’ It’s not like that.

Her longtime friend and former co-host Jenna Bush Hager encouraged her to take a chance on the mystery man, reminding Kotb of her recent commitment to pursuing what she wants.

“Because I’m your friend, and I heard you say, I’m going to start asking for what I want, I’m not going to tiptoe around things, and you say you feel like there’s something that might be there, the next time he asks you, you have to go for it,” Bush Hager insisted.

“My friend is brave and does things that scare her, so you have to go on this coffee date,” she added, growing increasingly emotional.

“OK, I’ll go to the coffee date,” Kotb finally agreed.

The candid conversation comes nearly three months after Kotb first opened up about her unexpected connection with the handsome stranger during an August appearance on the morning show.

At the time, she remembered sitting next to the man on a flight and striking up an unusually deep conversation that left them both in tears.

“It was the strangest connection in the world. We were both crying,” she told Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones.

“It was strange. You know when you have one of those (conversations where) everything is in full swing?”

According to Kotb, the man repeatedly asked, “Is this a dream? Is this real?” as they bonded in mid-flight.

Their paths unexpectedly crossed again in France when Kotb attended the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to promote her wellness business, Joy 101.

“Our company went to Cannes so we could talk about our company, and he was in the audience, by chance,” she remembers.

“Look. There are connections,” she added. “I don’t know what it is.”

Although Kotb kept the man’s identity a secret, she revealed during a September sit-down with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock that he worked in the artificial intelligence industry.

The potential romance would mark a new chapter for the TV personality, who called off her engagement to Schiffman, 68, in January 2022.

The former couple began dating in 2013 and got engaged in November 2019.

They share two adopted daughters, Haley, 9, and Hope, 7.

Kotb said at the time of their split, she and the financier decided they were “better as friends and parents” than as a couple.