'Today' hosts cry as Hoda Kotb announces her departure from the show

Entertainment gossip and news from the Newsweek staff network

Hoda Kotb shocked Today viewers – and moved her co-hosts to tears – when she emotionally announced her final retirement from the morning show on Thursday, September 26.

“At 60, I realized it was time for me to move on and try something new,” Kotb told her longtime co-stars Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager, Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones.

Kotb, who celebrated her 60th birthday in August, “remembered standing outside and looking at this wonderful group of people with these beautiful signs, and I thought, 'This is what the crest of the wave feels like to me,'” she explained. “And I thought it can't get any better, and I decided this is the right time for me to move on.”

The popular host, who has been a cheerful fixture on NBC for 26 years, also noted that she wanted to spend more time with her children — Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, whom she often spoke about on the show. (Kotb has missed several episodes over the years to care for her daughters, and revealed last year that Hope had a health issue that required a week-long hospital stay.)

“Obviously, I had my children late in life and I thought they deserved a bigger piece of my time pie than I have,” she said Thursday. “I feel like we only have a limited amount of time.”

Still, “though,” Kotb added, “it’s the hardest thing in the world.”

Guthrie, Jones and Bush Hager all cried while Kotb tried to speak through tears.

“I practiced not crying, but then I did,” Kotb laughed.

“There was no way there wouldn't be tears,” Guthrie told her co-star as she wiped tears from her own eyes. “We love you so much. And when you look around and see those tears, they are love. You are so loved.”

“We don't want to imagine this place without you,” Guthrie told Kotb in a choked voice. “So it's complicated because we love you so much and we don't want you to ever leave.”

“I'm so proud of my girlfriend,” she added. “You have guts. For someone to leave at the peak of their career… because she… dream[s] even bigger for [her]yourself… you inspire me,” Guthrie shouted.

“I love you. And it's not over yet, because I'm going to show up at your house,” she joked. “We're your friends forever.”

Kotb, for her part, joked with her colleagues that she will “haunt you throughout your life.”

“You never leave your family,” she noted.

Kotb — who has been a co-anchor of Today for five years, hosting the show's third hour with Kathie Lee Gifford for 11 years and later with Bush Hager for seven years — offered her co-stars and viewers at home a glimmer of hope: She will stay on Today. Today until early next year, and she will remain at NBC, although she did not reveal in what capacity.