Hoda Kotb Opens Up About HerTodayShow Exit: 'I Knew in My Heart, This Is It'

Mar. 15, 2025

Hoda Kotb talks to Jimmy Fallon on ‘The Tonight Show’.Photo:Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Hoda Kotbis opening up about her surpriseTodayshowexit.

Appearing onThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonon Monday, Oct. 7, the 60-year-old shared that her decision came about after she hit hermilestone birthdayover the summer.

“When I turned 60, something weird happened, man,” she continued. “I turned 60 and we had this beautiful party at theTodayshow 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 then went on to share that she has woken up at 3:15 a.m. to do the show for the last 17 years.

“This is going to be totally weird. I’ve woken up at this time for like 17 years. This is the first time, no alarm, click it off,” she said, adding that her time atTodayand her 26 years at NBC were “the longest love affair of my life.”

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on the ‘Today’ show.Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Fallon, 50, then asked Kotb what her daughters — Haley, 7, and Hope, 5 — thought about her decision.

“I was telling them, ‘Mommy is going to be able to take you to school,’ and they go, ‘[Gasp] Wednesday?’ ‘No honey, not Wednesday.’ ‘Next week?’ I go, ‘No honey, not next week. Probably somewhere January, February,’ ” she explained. “They said, ‘January, February?’ I might as well continue working forever. For them it’s like till the end.”

Opening up further about her decision to leave to focus on her young family, she continued, “You know what, you just have a feeling when you watch them grow. 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 I’m going to be doing stuff at NBC, I’m going to stay in the family.”

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Hoda Kotb on ‘The Tonight Show’.Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Kotb announced her departure from her anchoring dutiesin a letterto staff of the NBC morning show on Sept. 26.

“As I write this, my heart is all over the map,” she wrote. “I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one. And you all are the reason why. They say two things can be right at the same time, and I’m feeling that so deeply right now. I love youandit’s time for me to leave the show.”

Kotb continued, “My broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie. I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited.”

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She added that she will remain in her current role until the beginning of 25 and also plans to “remain a part of the NBC family.”

“I’ll be around. How could I not? Family is family and you all will always be a part of mine,” Kotb said.

source: people.com