On an emotional episode of the Today show, Hoda Kotb announced she would be leaving the show as a co-anchor after 17 years there and explained why through tears

Hoda Kotb

Beloved Today show news anchor Hoda Kotb announced on Thursday that she will be leaving the show early next year.

Through tears, she shared she would be leaving the show after 26 years at NBC and 17 years at Today. “Be cool,” she told herself with a smile as she laughed and fanned away her tears.

“I just turned 60 and it was such a monumental moment for me because I started to think about that decade like what does that decade mean, what does it hold, what does it have for me,” she said, “And I realized it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new.”

She also shared that her decision to leave stems from wanting to spend more time with her two daughters. “This is the right time for me to move on,” she continued.

Hoda Kotb
Hoda and her co-hosts got emotional ( 
Image:
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty I)
“Obviously I had my kiddos late in life and they deserve a bigger piece of my time,” Hoda said, “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.”

The news anchor is mother to two daughters, Haley, seven, and Hope, four. She adopted Haley in 2017 and Hope in 2019 with her ex-fiance Joel Schiffman.

She called leaving the show “the hardest thing in the world.” Hoda was handed tissues as she sat on the couch surrounded by her fellow anchors and co-workers who also shared a few tears as well.

“There’s no way there wasn’t going to be tears,” said Savannah Guthrie, Hoda’s co-anchor. The two made history when they became the first pair of female co-hosts of the Today show.

Sitting next to Hoda on the couch, she said: “We love you so much and when you look around and you see these tears, it’s love. You are so loved.”

“I don’t think any of us want to imagine this place without you,” she added, “But also I am so proud of my friend, you have guts. For someone to leave at the top of their game, to leave something that’s wonderful…you inspire me, I love you.”

Hoda will continue to work at NBC in the new year but won’t be an anchor anymore. “I’ll be around. How could I not? Family is family and you all will always be a part of mine,” Kotb wrote in a letter announcing her departure to her fellow staff.