Hoda Kotb announces she is quitting her job as anchor on “Today” to focus on her family

Hoda Kotb says goodbye to Today Moderator activity after 17 years.

“As I write this, my heart is somewhere else entirely,” the journalist wrote in a letter to NBC morning show staff shared on Thursday, September 26. “I know I am making the right decision, but it is a painful one. And all of you are the reason for it. They say two things can be right at the same time, and I feel that so much right now. I love you And it's time for me to leave the show.”

Kotb explained her motivations as follows: “My career as a presenter has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead of me and now my daughters and my mother need and deserve a bigger piece of my time pie. I will miss you all terribly, but I am ready and excited.”

She will remain in her current role until early 2025. But after the new year, she won't be leaving the network entirely; Kotb will continue in some capacity, writing, “Happy and grateful, I plan to remain a part of the NBC family, the longest working relationship I've ever had.”

“I will be there. How could I not? Family is family and you will all always be a part of me,” Kotb said.

Kotb is co-anchor of NBC News' Today alongside Savannah Guthrie and co-host of Today's fourth hour alongside Jenna Bush Hager.

She and Guthrie, 52, made history as the first female co-hosts of the popular morning talk show.

Kotb was the first host of Today's four-hour 10 a.m. broadcast in September 2007 and was joined by co-host Kathie Lee Gifford in April 2008. Hager became co-host with Kotb in August 2019 following Gifford's departure.

She was appointed co-host of Today in January 2018, after Matt Lauer was forced out of office due to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Kotb has shared her journey to motherhood on the show and on her social media.

After being unable to conceive in 2007 due to a breast cancer diagnosis, she adopted a daughter, Haley Joy, in 2017. The TV personality's family grew in 2019 with the adoption of her second daughter, Hope Catherine. She has the two girls with her ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman.

While Today Films in Manhattan, Kotb and her daughters recently moved into a house in the suburbs where Haley, 7, and Hope, 4, have their own rooms.

“They are so excited to have their own space,” explained the mother of two Today. “They're happy with a reading chair, they're happy with a beanbag and their bed – things like that.”

Moving to a new home in a new community also brought some challenges.

“Everything is new – new kids, new school, new things, new everything,” Kotb added. “It's weird because all I could think about was that I wanted a warm and cozy house for the kids and a place where they wanted to hang out. And that's all.”

“I want my kids to feel grass on their feet, play in the yard, ride their bikes down the street, run up and down the stairs,” she told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about the move. “I just see them living in this perfect house in this beautiful little town where I know they can grow into beautiful, independent, strong women.”

The girls stayed home while Kotb was in Paris last month for the 2024 Summer Olympics, but cheered on their mother and Team USA.

In February 2023, Kotb was absent from Today for two weeks when Hope experienced a medical crisis that placed her in the intensive care unit for several days and in the hospital for over a week.

“We went through a scary phase,” Kotb told PEOPLE last March. “Any parent who has gone through something scary with their child understands that. You just can't believe that your child is sick. You can't believe that there's nothing you can do. You can't believe that no matter what you do, you can't magic it away or protect it or all the things that we're supposed to do as parents. And that's a situation that I've never been in.”

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When the family finally returned home, they began embarking on a longer-term journey to manage Hope's health. (Because of Hope's young age, Kotb chose not to elaborate on her daughter's diagnosis, but shared at the time that they were monitoring her around the clock to ensure her well-being.)

After a few months, “everything stabilized,” Kotb told PEOPLE, adding that she hired additional help to balance the new medical demands with her highly unusual and rigorous work schedule. Her top priority was “trying to make everything normal,” she said at the time. “It's really difficult because I don't want Hope to be labeled. She's such a vibrant child and most days everything is totally fine. I don't want people to see her any other way.”