A concise portrait
Sameha “Sami” Kotb moves through a room like a practiced stitch in a familiar quilt: small gestures that hold the whole fabric together. Best known to the public as the mother of television journalist Hoda Kotb, Sameha’s life is quieter than a headline but no less consequential. A long-serving Library of Congress employee, a devoted parent and grandparent, and an active runner, she occupies the kind of familial center that shapes decisions, traditions, and weekday breakfasts behind the scenes.
Basic information
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Sameha Kotb (commonly “Sami”) |
| Public role | Mother of TV journalist Hoda Kotb; occasional television guest and family-feature participant |
| Employment | U.S. Library of Congress — career spanning over 30 years |
| Children | 3 (including Hoda, Adel, Hala) |
| Grandchildren | 4 (Hoda’s two daughters; Adel’s two daughters) |
| Notable athletic feat | Has run the Marine Corps Marathon |
| Notable family dates | Hoda Kotb born 1964; Abdel Kader Kotb died 1985; Hoda’s daughters adopted 2017 and 2019 |
| Public presence | Appears in family segments and social posts; participates in on-air cooking and family features |
Family & relationships (who’s who)
| Name | Relation | Public role / note |
|---|---|---|
| Hoda Kotb | Daughter | National broadcast journalist and television personality; frequently features Sameha in family segments |
| Adel Kotb | Son | Civil engineer (publicly known); father to two daughters |
| Hala Kotb | Daughter | Participates in family events and public appearances |
| Abdel Kader Kotb | Late husband | Egyptian-born father (died 1985) |
| Haley Joy Kotb | Granddaughter | Adopted by Hoda (2017) |
| Hope Catherine Kotb | Granddaughter | Adopted by Hoda (2019) |
| Hannah & Ella | Granddaughters | Children of Adel Kotb |
Each name reads like a chapter heading in an extended family novel: some chapters are public and photographed, others quietly lived. Sameha’s relationships are not flashbulb fame; they are day-to-day anchors that surface on camera at key moments — birthdays, hospital stays, finish lines.
Career and public life
Sameha’s professional life is best summarized by a single number: 30+ years at the Library of Congress. That tenure signals a life of steady service in a large public institution — decades of workdays that built a modest pension and more importantly, a network of colleagues and routines. The details of her job title are not the point; longevity in federal service is.
Publicly, Sameha’s appearances are personal rather than promotional. She crops into TV segments to cook a family meal, to appear beside a daughter on a milestone show, or to record a short, loving message. In such moments she functions as translator between private family life and the curious glare of television: an interpreter of home recipes, of familial faith, of the small rituals that anchor a busy public life.
Athletically, she has shown endurance beyond everyday caretaking: running the Marine Corps Marathon places her in the category of people who translate persistence into concrete miles. That image — a woman crossing a finish line — works as a metaphor for how she has navigated life’s long haul.
The influence that doesn’t need a spotlight
Some people measure influence by awards; Sameha’s influence is measured in practice: the way a daughter cites her optimism during career shifts; the way grandchildren learn recipes or phrases; the way a family leans when networks of support are required. Her style counsel, kitchen instincts, and steady presence have been described repeatedly by those who share the stage with her daughter. The portrait is domestic but firm: she is the constant against which change plays out.
Timeline — key public milestones and dates
| Year / Approx. | Event |
|---|---|
| 1964 | Birth of daughter Hoda Kotb. |
| c. 1970s–1980s | Family life with husband Abdel Kader Kotb; children raised in U.S. with Egyptian heritage visible in family stories. |
| 1985 | Death of Abdel Kader Kotb. |
| c. 1980s–2010s | Sameha works at the U.S. Library of Congress for over 30 years. |
| 2007 | Documented family health events; Sameha present and supportive during Hoda’s treatment and recovery. |
| 2010s | Increasing public appearances on television family segments and social posts. |
| 2017 | Hoda Kotb announces adoption of Haley Joy (Sameha becomes a grandmother). |
| 2019 | Hoda Kotb announces adoption of Hope Catherine (Sameha again in grandmother role). |
| 2024–2025 | Media coverage notes Hoda’s shift in career priorities toward family; Sameha features in social tributes and final-show family moments. |
Numbers provide structure here: birth years, adoption years, decades of service. They also reveal a pattern — rhythm and recurrence — that explains why Sameha’s presence is invoked when the family pauses or reframes priorities.
Portrait in public life: gestures, not headlines
On camera, Sameha is rarely the center of a story. Rather, she is a foil and a mirror: she reflects Hoda’s memories, stitches together family recipes, and models calm. Her public appearances are short, warm, and unadorned. She brings food to a table, not a résumé; she speaks a sentence or two, then steps back. That economy of presence is deliberate. It is a different kind of leadership: the leadership of continuity.
A photograph of her at a marathon, for instance, is a tidy allegory. You cannot see every mile she trained, but you see the finish-line grit. You don’t read every conversation she mediated, but you feel the legacy in the way her grandchildren greet her. She operates in repeated small acts: a bowl stirred, a jacket adjusted, a daughter hugged before camera rolls.
Numbers that matter
- 30+ years — tenure at the Library of Congress.
- 3 — children.
- 4 — grandchildren.
- 1964, 1985, 2017, 2019 — public anchor dates across generations.
These figures are not trivia. They are scaffolding: the architecture of a family life that has public moments threaded through private routines.
A final frame (without finality)
Sameha Kotb’s public image is simple and stubborn: she is the steady parent at the heart of a modern, media-visible family. Her work life, athletic stamina, and grandmotherly patience add several dimensions to a role often flattened by headlines. She shows how influence can be granular — a recipe passed down, an airport pickup, a face in a video that says, plainly, “I am here.” The story that emerges is one of persistence, small rituals, and the kind of presence that quietly recalibrates a family’s choices and shapes its public moments.
