Hoda Kotb’s decision to leave the Today show came as a shock to fans, but she’s been thinking about moving on for a while.
Kotb, 60, opened up about her decision to leave the morning show during a Monday, October 7, appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, explaining that she started considering the move around the time of her birthday in August.
“When I turned 60, something weird happened, man,” she told host Jimmy Fallon. “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.”
Kotb further explained that she’s in a “repotting” stage of her life. “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?’” she said. “But you know you’re going to land in fertile ground.”
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Kotb announced on September 26 that she will be leaving the morning show in early 2025 after five years as coanchor and nearly three decades at NBC.
“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new. This is the right time for me to move on,” she explained on-air to cohost Savannah Guthrie while citing her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, as motivation for the decision.
On Monday, Kotb joked that she won’t know what to do with herself at night after so many years of going to bed early so she could wake up at 3:15 a.m. for Today.
“This is going to be totally weird,” she joked. “I’ve woken up at this time for, like, 17 years. This is the first time, no alarm, click it off.”
Last month, an NBC insider exclusively told Us Weekly that morning TV is “such a hard job on your life” — especially when you have kids at home.
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“I think the average person understands that morning TV is not glamorous,” the insider added. “She’s a mom later in life. She wants to focus on her kids.”
Kotb’s last day at Today has not yet been announced, but she said last month that she plans to work through the beginning of early 2025. She also noted that she won’t be leaving NBC entirely.
“Happily and gratefully, I plan to remain a part of the NBC family, the longest work relationship I’ve been lucky enough to hold close to my heart,” she said in a statement. “I’ll be around. How could I not? Family is family and you all will always be a part of mine.”
