Hoda Kotb changed her name to hide a big secret

Most American housewives who watch the fourth hour of the Today show are familiar with Kathy Lee Gifford's partner in wine, Hoda Kotb. While KLG's path to the Today show is well known, how many of you know Hoda Kotb's sordid past? Many of those 40 something housewives may be a little jealous.

Hoda, Kathy and wine on the fourth hour of Today

Back in 1986 an impressionable 22 year old Egyptian/American college student called Hoda Baghar was involved in an interesting love affair with more than half of the members of a popular boy band of the time. Like many young ladies in the 80's she was madly in love with New Kids On The Block, but she had taken it one step further, by actually sleeping with three of them.

I know what you are thinking, why only 3 of them? Which 2 did she not get involved with? Simple. The rule with all boy bands (and many girl bands) is 20% of the group have to be gay and 20% have to be way less attractive than the rest of the group. So Hoda never messed with Jonathan Knight or Danny Wood.

Hoda and the New Kids

She was so infatuated with the New Kids that in 1987 she changed her name to Hoda Nkotb (NKOTB being acronymous for the band name). The relationship between Hoda and the New Kids lasted until 1992 when their popularity waned and Hoda's career at CBS started taking off.

In order to hide her super-groupie past, Hoda changed her name again after the split in '92 by simply dropping the 'N' from the front of her name, leaving it as Kotb, which means 'axis' in Egyptian. So far this has proved to be a good move since she can now be found both on 'Dateline' and 'Today'.

Although none of the New Kids have ever confirmed that they knew Hoda either socially or biblically, there are rumors that their 2013 song 'Fighting Gravity' from the album 10 was written about her. Hoda is equally tight-lipped about her past, and even Kathy Lee and a box of Chianti can't get the story out of her.

What do you think? Who is your favorite New Kid? Can you even name any of them? I bet Hoda could!