Hoda Kotb shared her deep appreciation for the close friends who are supporting her as she prepares for her next adventure.

Hoda announced in September she will be leaving TODAY in early 2025, after nearly three decades at NBC News.

“When I feel like, ‘Oh, was that the right choice?’ I’ll call Maria Shriver and I’ll say, ‘Maria, listen, here’s my deal. I’m feeling good about this,’ and she’ll go, ‘Sit with it.’ Sometimes it’s that basic advice, ‘Just sit with it,’” Hoda said Oct. 25 on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna. “I think her guidance has been instrumental to me.” Hoda called Shriver her “flat tire friend” who’s always there when times are tough.Nathan. Congleton / TODAY
She also said she is grateful for ongoing support from her sister, Hala, her best friend, Karen Swensen, and her TODAY with Hoda & Jenna co-host, Jenna Bush Hager.

Hoda acknowledged she was scared and still is scared about the change, but she explained her big decision to leave TODAY feels more like a “repotting.”

“I love the term ‘repotting.’ It’s like you’re pulled up by your very roots, your foundation, everything that grounds you, and your roots are in the air and you’re scared. ‘Where am I going to land?’” she said.

Hoda revealed she borrowed the term “repotting” from Shriver, who joined her and Jenna on the show Oct. 25.

“Maria is my call. You are my — you called it once a ‘flat tire friend’ call, the person you call when you are emotionally down and you don’t know what to do,” Hoda said.

“I actually stole the term ‘repotting’ from Maria, that was Maria’s!” she added.

Shriver praised Hoda for her bravery in embarking on a new path.

“I’m so proud of you … you followed your gut and you went with what you wanted, even though you were afraid. … It’s really brave to leave something that you love and walk into the unknown,” Shriver said. “It’s really brave to think, ‘There’s something more for me out there. I don’t know what it is, but I’m going to walk towards this.’”

Shriver added that she supported Hoda by reminding her friend of other times she had taken a leap of faith. Shriver said she reminded Hoda to trust that “you know what you’re doing, to believe in your voice, to believe in your gut, and to follow that. That was really my only role, is, ‘You’ve got this. You’ve always had it.’”

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Hoda has not shared exactly what she will be up to after she leaves TODAY, although she has said she will remain part of the NBC family, but she hinted at what her next chapter may hold.

“I’ve been so turned on by the wellness space,” she told Jenna earlier in the hour, adding her experiences with her own body inspired her.

“I tried different things, and I noticed my body was calmer,” she said. “I was getting sick less. I was feeling better. I was a better parent, a better friend, a better sister, a better daughter, and I thought, ‘All these tiny things I was doing, day after day, were helping to change me inside.’”

Hoda told Jenna she wants to “live in wellness” after she leaves TODAY.

“I want to work in that space,” Hoda explained. “I want to start things. I’ve got things that are percolating inside that I’m going to hopefully have fully formed soon.”

She has also opened up about wanting to spend more time with her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5.

No matter what she does next, Hoda said she feels ready for a “new adventure.”

“I love new adventures, and I’ve been on the ride of a lifetime. And I think sometimes we’re afraid, because what could be better than this?” she said.

She added that it’s “hard to say goodbye” to her TODAY family because she loves her job and her colleagues. However, she said she realized around her 60th birthday that she had reached “a peak.”

“There was something, to me, about recognizing a peak, and saying in that peak, ‘I do not feel that there is an opportunity that would make this get any better than it is today,’” she said.

“And I think once that feeling hits you, you’re like, ‘This is it.’ I don’t want to spend my days trying to re-create the top of the mountain,” Hoda added. “It was glorious, it was unforgettable, it was a once-in-a-lifetime. And it’s not sad, it’s beautiful.”