Hoda Kotb Bids ‘Today’ Show a Fond, Tearful Farewell

After 26 years at NBC, Today cohost Hoda Kotb announced on Sept. 26 that she’ll leave the show early in 2025, though she’ll still have some sort of role on NBC News. “I just turned 60, and it was such a monumental moment for me,” Kotb told viewers. “What does that decade mean? What does it hold? What’s it going to have for me? And I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new.”

She was crying, which made her cohost Savannah Guthrie, 52, cry her own false eyelash off — which she handed to Kotb, and both started laughing.

Kotb (pronounced “KOT-bee”) has coanchored Today with Guthrie since 2018, filling in after Matt Lauer was fired amid sexual harassment allegations. She first joined NBC News as a correspondent for Dateline in 1998 and joined Today in 2007.

Don’t miss this: Behind the scenes with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb

Always upbeat and smart, Kotb is widely regarded as one of the best things to happen to mornings since coffee was invented. She’s particularly beloved by AARP members: She appeared on the cover of AARP The Magazine in 2013, along with her then-cohost Kathie Lee Gifford, 71, and hosted the 2021 AARP Movies for Grownups Awards. 

Don’t miss this: Hoda Kotb announces she’s hosting the 2021 AARP Movies for Grownups Awards

“I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of the time pie that I have,” Kotb told Today viewers. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.” In 2017, Kotb adopted the first of two daughters, Haley.

Don’t miss this: Hoda Kotb on adopting a child in her 50s: “I’ve always had this feeling inside that I wanted a baby, but I thought I was too late.”

People in the 50-plus generations can relate to Kotb’s thoughtful approach to seizing the day and making life what we want it to be.

“This is a time in life for looking inside you and figuring out what your yearnings are, your callings — where or what direction you’re headed during this new decade,” she told The New York Times.

Her goodbye note to Today staffers mentioned many of her coworkers, including Jenna Bush Hager and Al Roker, 70: “Savannah: my rock. Jenna: my ride-or-die. Al: my longest friend at 30 Rock.”

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