“Today” show favorite Hoda Kotb announced Thursday that she’s leaving the morning program after 26 years with NBC.
Just weeks after celebrating her 60th birthday, the beloved TV personality broke down in tears as she revealed live on-air that she will be leaving “Today” in the New Year.
“I do have some news. So I was doing the math and I realized that I have spent 26 years at NBC,” an emotional Kotb began. “I just turned 60 and it was such a monumental moment for me when I turned 60 years old because I started thinking about that decade. Like, ‘What does that decade mean? What does it hold? What it’s gonna have for me?’”
Kotb said she realized that it was time for her to “turn the page at 60” and “try something new” outside of her decades-long career as a TV host.
“I decided this is the right time for me to kind of move on. And so with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world,” she continued. “I’m not gonna be here past the first of the year. I’m gonna stay in the NBC family, but it’s kind of a big deal for me.”
Kotb then joked that she had been “practicing” what she was going to say so that she wouldn’t cry, but couldn’t help herself from tearing up as she made the bittersweet announcement.
“I don’t know what to say except for, ‘You don’t leave family,’ so I’m gonna be haunting you in your lives for a long, long time,” she said to co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager.
Ahead of the announcement, a source told us that Kotb made the decision after recently moving to the suburbs with her two daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 4. She also sent a heartfelt letter to her staff.
“It’s heartbreaking for everyone, but Hoda wants to be able to walk her kids to school,” the insider said.
Even though Kotb is leaving, producers hope she will stay on the show in “some capacity,” whether that be returning for special interviews or continuing with her “Today”-adjacent podcast.
“We have time to work it out,” the source noted.
In recent months, Kotb spent the summer in Paris for the Olympics with co-hosts Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Craig Melvin. Upon her return to New York City, she was celebrated with a big birthday concert.
