Kathie Lee Gifford surprised her former co-host and close friend Hoda Kotb, whose last day on "Today" was Friday.

They didn't begin dating immediately. As Gifford explained ... the best partner a person could ever, ever have professionally ...

And fittingly, her former cohost Kathie Lee Gifford was the one to do it ... wrote on this Christmas selfie with her mom, her partner and her little angel. For her first Halloween, Haley ...