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March 5 (UPI) -- Hoda Kotb says her daughter is "the great erasure" of pain and stress in her life. The 54-year-old television personality discussed in an essay for The Cut how Haley Joy, her 2-year-old daughter with boyfriend Joel Schiffman, keeps her present.
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"I try to kind of stay present a little bit. Like, what am I really stressed about? Haley is the great erasure of pain, of stress, of everything, really," Kotb wrote.
"I'll come in kind of stressed out from a day or something and I'll look at her, and all of a sudden I'll realize, Oh, this is it. This is what matters. What was I worried about?" she shared.
The Today host also said Haley inspired her to unplug and put away her phone at home.
"I mean, what if we replaced our phone with an apple. And what if your daughter or your friend saw you always reaching, 'Where's the apple? Where's the apple?' It's like we're crazy," Kotb explained.
"I mean, Haley has a purse and the first thing she threw in it was, 'Haley phone' ... I was like, 'Oh [expletive], what am I doing?' After I order our dinner and put the music on in her room, I put the phone away," she said.
Kotb said she ends her evenings by putting Haley to bed and giving Schiffman a kiss goodnight.
"I put Haley down between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Joel will tell me a little bit about his day. I'll give him a kiss. And I'm like, 'Light's out.' Joel's like, 'Wait, what?' I'm like, 'Goodnight. It's over,'" she wrote.
Kotb adopted Haley in February 2017 and is raising her with Schiffman, her boyfriend of six years. Kotb and Schiffman brought Haley to see Sesame Street Live! with Dylan Dreyer and her family in February.
"Sunny days ... everything's a-ok! @dylandreyernbc @sesamestreet," Kotb captioned a slideshow of photos on Instagram.
Kotb is a co-anchor on Today and also co-hosts the fourth hour of the show. Jenna Bush Hager will replace Kathie Lee Gifford as Kotb's co-host after Gifford leaves the fourth hour in April.
