Hoda Kotb is opening up about a romantic encounter on a plane.
The former "Today" cohost and Joy 101 founder, 62, stopped by "Today with Jenna & Sheinelle" on Friday, Aug. 21. Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones asked about their friend and former coanchor's love life, since "everybody likes to talk about" it, as Bush Hager put it.
Though she qualified the conversation by saying, "This is not a real love connection," she added that she "did meet someone on a plane when I was flying somewhere."
Jones, immediately giddy, jumped in, "Oh, this is romantic! Should we try to find him?"
The pair shared a midair bond, Kotb said.
"It was the weirdest connection in the world. We were both crying," she continued. "It was strange. You know, when you have one
of those [moments where] everything is firing on all cylinders?"
The unnamed man, whom Kotb later described as "really cute" and "very handsome," also found the connection unusual.
"He kept saying, 'Is this a dream? Is this real?'" Kotb added.
Kotb was on a flight to Cannes, France, headed to an event for her wellness company, Joy 101. At the event, Kotb spotted the mystery man "randomly" in the audience, and they reconnected again. "But then, it all kind of just went away," Kotb added.
But Kotb admitted – to Jones, Bush Hager and every other romantic's delight – that wasn't "actually the end" to the story.
"We have texted recently," Kotb said. "Look. There are connections. I don't know what it is."
She was previously married to University of New Orleans tennis coach Burzis Kanga from 2005 to 2007, when she filed for divorce. Kotb shares her adopted daughters, Haley Joy and Hope, with former fiancé Joel Schiffman. She announced they'd called off their engagement in 2022.
Kotb previously told USA TODAY that she was "all the way ready" to find her forever love.
"Mine is coming and I know that," she said in September. "And I'm not saying it because 'Yay, I really hope …' I'm not hoping, I'm not wishing, I know. So when it is right and when he steps in, I'm ready, like all the way ready."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hoda Kotb reveals she made the 'weirdest connection' with a 'very handsome' man
