Hoda Kotb Reveals the One Thing Missing in Her Life Is Having a Child

The Today show host released her third book, Where They Belong: The Best Decisions That People Almost Never Made Jan. 5

Photo: Matthew Eisman/WireImage

Beyond her big smile and butterflies from her boyfriend of two years, Joel Schiffman, Hoda Kotb still feels like “something is missing.”

The 51-year-old, who just released her third book Where They Belong: The Best Decisions That People Almost Never Made, revealed that although she is highly fulfilled with her life, the thing missing is children.

“Here’s what’s weird about life,” Kotb tells PEOPLE on Friday at her book launch event hosted by The Moms MAMARAZZI and Secrets Resorts and Spas. “I was divorced and I had an illness, and suddenly you look at your life and go, ‘Wait, how did that door close?'”

Kotb says every time she sees a baby carriage or a baby stroller, she “melts.”

“This woman showed up with her baby and I just stopped the whole thing – like shut it down, had a whole visit, hugged her child and I thought, ‘What do you do if you can’t fill that space? How do you do it?'”

Her book details her thoughts on surrounding herself with children and perhaps starting a summer camp for underprivileged children. And growing up, she considered being a school teacher.

“I feel that I belong somehow with kids, and I don’t know how that will unfold in life, but I’m hopeful that somehow I can find the right lane there,” she says.

She also introduces the idea of going from “Point A” to “Point Belong,” saying her “Point Belong” is “laughing and scratching and drinking next to Kathie Lee Gifford on their show, for now.

Kotb’s book Where They Belong: The Best Decisions That People Almost Never Made is in stores now.