Hoda Kotb Leaves TODAY, Colleagues React to Departure

Hoda Kotb is outta there, people.

Or she might be fairly quickly a minimum of.

On Thursday morning, the long-time tv character shocked viewers by saying she has determined to depart The TODAY Present, efficient on January 1, 2025.

Hoda Kotb publicizes right here that she is leaving the TODAY present. (Nathan Congleton / TODAY)

“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” Kotb mentioned on air.

“I remembered standing outdoors taking a look at these stunning bunch of individuals with these attractive indicators, and I believed, ‘This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.’

“And I thought it can’t get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on.”

Certainly, Kotb celebrated this milestone birthday in August — and defined how the event impressed the choice she has now lastly arrived at.

Hoda Kotb attends the 2024 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart on September 8, 2024 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by John Nacion/Getty Photographs)

That is what she mentioned:

“I thought of — clearly, I had my kiddos late in life — and I used to be pondering they deserve a much bigger piece of my time, the pie that I’ve. I really feel like we solely have a finite period of time. And so, with all that being mentioned, that is the toughest factor on the earth.

Kotb shares daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, along with her ex-fiancé, Joel Schiffman.

The co-host will stay part of the “NBC family” going ahead, Kotb emphasised, however not within the type of common capability she’s loved for the previous 17 years on TODAY.

Hoda Kotb attends ‘Prelude to the Olympics’ at Fondation Louis Vuitton on July 25, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photograph by Julien M. Hekimian/Getty Photographs for LVMH x Vogue x NBC)

“Hoda, we love you so much, and when you look around and you see these tears, they’re love. You are so loved. And honestly, I don’t think any of us can imagine — we don’t want to imagine this place without you,” Savannah Guthrie mentioned via tears.

“So, it’s complicated ‘cause we love you so much and we don’t want you to ever go.”

To her good friend, she added:

“You have guts. For someone to leave at the top of their game, to leave something that’s wonderful, that you love, where it’s easy and comfortable and beautiful and fun and say, ‘But I dream even bigger for myself…’ You have so much guts. You inspire me. I love you.”

Hoda Kotb attends the Hudson River Park Associates eighth Annual Playground Committee Luncheon at Present at Chelsea Piers on March 8, 2024 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Photographs for Associates of Hudson River Park)

Stated Jenna Bush Hager:

“Hoda instructed me only a couple days in the past, and when she instructed me, my first response was from my intestine and it was virtually loopy. … I mentioned, ‘No, you can’t depart.’

“You’re who I come to when I’m feeling joyful, when I’m feeling unsure. You are who I come to and you believed in me first,” she continued. “We have a lot of bosses ad I love them, but this lady, on October 28, 2013 — I looked it up — said, ‘Hey, wanna come sit next to me? There’s room.’”

Then there was this from Sheinelle Jones:

“The one factor that folks know for certain about this group is we’re household. And I’m telling you, Hoda has a relationship with each single particular person on this sofa in her personal method, so I believe we’re all simply type of wrestling with it inside.

“However we additionally know what a dynamic mother you might be, and presence you might be. And your entire motion with wellness. You’re going to change the world.

“And we know it.”

Hoda Kotb speaks in the course of the Hudson River Park Associates eighth Annual Playground Committee Luncheon at Present at Chelsea Piers on March 8, 2024 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Photographs for Associates of Hudson River Park)

And Al Roker:

“I’ve by no means recognized anyone such as you. I’ve recognized you endlessly, and I like you…

We’ll give the final, emotional phrase to Craig Melvin:

“Folks on this enterprise, when that little pink gentle, when it goes off, they’re completely different folks. We’ve labored with all these folks earlier than. You’re the alternative.

“When that little pink gentle goes off, you might be precisely like folks see you within the morning — simply the largest coronary heart. You’ve been the guts of the present for a very long time, and there’s no changing that…