Hoda Kotb announces departure from the “Today” show

After more than 25 years as a reporter and anchor at NBC, Hoda Kotb announced Thursday that she would be retiring from the “Today” show. In a letter to NBC morning show staff, Kotb called the stepping down “the right but painful decision.” “They say two things can be right at the same time, and I feel that deeply right now,” Kotb wrote. “I love you guys and it's time for me to leave the show.” During her on-air announcement, Kotb and her co-hosts were visibly moved when she announced her departure. “At 60, it was time for me to start a new chapter,” Kotb said. “I decided this is the right time for me to move on. I obviously had my kids late in life and thought they deserved a bigger piece of my time pie than I did.” Kotb joined NBC in 1998 as a correspondent before taking over the fourth hour of “Today” as co-anchor in 2007, first with Kathie Lee Gifford and later with Jenna Bush Hager. In 2018, Kotb added the first two hours of the show to her schedule and became her co-anchor alongside Savannah Guthrie. “We don't want to imagine this place without you, so it's complicated because we love you so much and we don't want you to ever leave,” Guthrie said, adding that it “takes courage when someone leaves at the peak of their career.” She says that while she is stepping down from her role as co-anchor, she intends to remain in the NBC family. Kotb intends to step down sometime in early 2025. A replacement has not yet been announced.