Hoda Kotb announces that she will be departing from the “TODAY” show.
After spending nearly 20 years with the network, Kotb shared the emotional news on the show and her decision to step away. “I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and try something new,” she said. “I remembered standing outside looking at the beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, ‘This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.’ And I thought it can’t get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on.”
She added that she wanted to focus on her family. “Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have. I feel like we only have a finite amount of time. And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world.”
Hoda Kotb joined Today in 2007 for their fourth-hour weekday morning show. She also touched on her journey with the network in a letter she wrote. “My time at NBC has been the longest professional love affair of my life,” she wrote in the letter. “But only because you’ve been beside me on this twenty-six-year adventure. Looking back, the math is nuts. 26 years at NBC News- Ten years at Dateline, seven on the seven o’clock hour, sixteen on the ten o’clock hour.”
She also expressed her love and gratitude for all of her colleagues she met at the network. “I’m picturing your faces and your families and all the ways you’ve lifted me up and inspired me. That’s my heart singing. So many of my professional relationships have become some of my most cherished friendships.” Hoda revealed that she had been thinking about moving on for a while but realized after her 60th birthday.
“My sixtieth birthday celebration on the Plaza felt like a shift,” she added. “Like a massive, joyful YES, you are! I saw it all so clearly: my broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie. I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited.”