Hoda Kotb announced Thursday that she’s is leaving NBC’s Today after 17 years, saying she wants to spend more time with her daughters and mother. Kotb has been in the co-anchor spot since January 2018.
Kotb, who grew up in NoVA and graduated from Virginia Tech, let staff know about her decision in a September 26 letter.
“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 you and it’s time for me to leave the show.”
Kotb said she has been weighing the decision for quite a while. “But, my sixtieth birthday celebration on the Plaza felt like a shift. Like a massive, joyful YES, you are! I saw it all so clearly: 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.”
Kotb’s daughters are ages 5 and 7.
She will stay with Today through January 1, 2025, and plans to continue with NBC after that. She has been with the network for 26 years. She and Savannah Guthrie were the show’s first all-female anchor team.
“So many of my professional relationships have become some of my most cherished friendships,” she wrote.
In an interview with Northern Virginia Magazine in 2022, Kotb said her mom and other family members live in Old Town Alexandria and she only comes back three to four times a year.
“My mom’s like the mayor of Old Town, but she’s really the mayor of Misha’s Coffee,” Kotb said at the time. “When you go there, my mom is like, ‘Tom, this is my daughter!’ And sometimes when she’s there without me, she raises her phone and she FaceTimes me.”
Feature image of Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb courtesy Today show
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