Hoda Kotb is of Egyptian descent. Her father, Mohammad Kotb, was a successful businessman and her mother, Sameha Mohamed Attia Kotb, was a homemaker. Hoda has two older sisters, Heba and Hala. She grew up in Cairo and attended an international school where she learned English. In her teens, she spent a summer living with her aunt in Virginia and attending a local high school. After graduating from college, she worked as a television journalist in Egypt and later in Paris before moving to the United States.