Hoda Kotb shared the exact moment she decided to leave Today after 16 years and revealed what her future holds after working at NBC for 26 years.
Hoda Kotb is ready for her new normal.
Nearly two weeks after the longtime Today cohost announced she will be leaving the morning show early next year, the journalist shed new light on her decision to walk away after more than 16 years.
“I think I’m doing this like repotting thing,” Hoda told Jimmy Fallon during an Oct. 7 appearance on The Tonight Show. “You know when you pull yourself up by the roots and you’re kind of dangling and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing? What’s happening?’ But you know you’re going to land in fertile ground.”
While Hoda’s Sept. 26 announcement might have surprised Today fans, she revealed the exact moment she knew she needed to leave occurred earlier this summer.
“When I turned 60, something weird happened, man,” she explained. “I turned 60 and we had this beautiful party at the Today show and I looked out at the sea of all the people who came and beautiful signs and so many well wishes and I knew in my heart like, ‘This is it, man.’ This is what the mountaintop must feel like. Like I’d never had that feeling before.”
And while Jimmy noted she’s “leaving on top” after working at NBC for 26 years, Hoda rejoiced in the fact that she won’t have to wake up for work at 3:15 a.m. for the first time in nearly two decades.
As for how her daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, reacted to her decision?
“I was telling them, ‘Mommy is going to be able to take you to school,’ and they go, ‘Wednesday?’” she recounted. “‘No honey, not Wednesday.’ ‘Next week?’ I go, ‘No honey, not next week. Probably somewhere January, February.’” They said, ‘January, February?!’ I might as well continue working forever. For them it’s like till the end.”
But after Hoda officially signs off, she can’t wait to spend all her newly free time with her two kids, who she shares with ex Joel Schiffman.
Todd Owyoung/NBC“You just have a feeling when you watch them grow,” the 60-year-old noted. “I was like, ‘They need a little more of me and I need more of them,’ so I think it’s all gonna work out beautifully.”
But it’s not goodbye for good, as she added, “I’m going to be doing stuff at NBC, I’m going to stay in the family.”
Keep reading for a closer look at the Today show’s family album photos.
InstagramHoda’s Halloween
“Another Halloween in the books,” wrote the host as she celebrated the day with her daughter Haley Joy.
InstagramCarson and Siri’s Bundle of Joy
The anchor and his wife announced the happy news when they welcomed their fourth child, Goldie Patricia Daly!
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesKelly has kept the lives of her three young children—Edward, Yardley, and Thatcher— relatively quiet, but she and her novelist husband make plenty of their own public appearances as a duo.
Steve Mack/Getty ImagesHoda’s former co-host is a loving mommy to her own two children, Cassidy Gifford and Cody Gifford, with her late husband, Frank Gifford.
TwitterThe TV personality is a mommy to two little ones, Vale Guthrie Feldman and Charles Max Feldman, with her husband Mike Feldman. She welcomed Charles into the world in December 2016.
Noam Galai/WireImageThe anchor and his wife, Deborah Roberts, are parents to Leila Roker and Nicholas Albert Roker.
Paul Zimmerman/WireImageThe anchor of Sunday Today has been married to his wife, Christina, since 2003. They’re parents to two children, George William Geist and Lucie Joy Geist.
