Hoda Kotb explains her “difficult” decision to leave the “Today” show

Hoda Kotb cried as she continued to explain her shocking departure from the “Today” show with Jenna Bush Hager on Thursday morning.

“It's hard to say goodbye to something so amazing,” Kotb said tearfully on Thursday's episode of “Today With Hoda and Jenna.”

Both Kotb and her fourth-hour co-host, Jenna Bush Hager, broke down in tears as they discussed the emotional decision.

“It weighed on me a lot. I went back and forth and then I thought, 'You know, I think this decade is where I need to start making up my mind for myself,'” Kotb told Bush Hager, later admitting that she had “known” for some time that her time had come to leave.

Bush Hager was equally emotional, admitting that she initially told Kotb “no” when he told her about her “bittersweet” decision “just a few days ago.”

“I said, 'No! You can't leave, because what do we have here, with all these people?'” she said through tears. “It's magical and powerful and that's what it feels like here, and you're the one I come to when I'm happy, when I'm unsure, you're the one I come to, and you were the first to believe in me.”

Kotb agreed that their time together was “one in a million,” but she is ready to focus more on her two adopted daughters, Haley and Hope, in the next decade.

“I also realized that this wave is the peak for me, and of course I was thinking about my girls, and when you have kids later in life, you think about days and hours and minutes, and you think about commutes to school and things like that, and I thought, I want my kids to get more pieces of my pie,” Kotb explained.

The co-hosts also spoke briefly about Kotb's replacement for the fourth hour, with Kotb assuring Bush Hager that she was “on” and “whoever sits in that seat is going to have the easiest job in the world.”

Kotb, 60, tearfully announced that she was leaving “Today” after more than five years as co-host and “Today With Hoda and Jenna.”

“I realized that at 60, it was time for me to turn the page and try something new,” she said Thursday morning.

“I remember standing outside and looking at this wonderful group of people with these amazing signs, and I thought, 'This is what the crest of the wave feels like to me.' And I thought, 'It can't get any better than this,' and I decided this was the right time for me to move on.”

The journalist, who has adopted daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, with her ex Joel Schiffman, said her daughters played a big role in her decision to step down from her job after the daughters recently moved to a New York suburb.

“Of course, I had my children late in life and I thought they deserved a bigger piece of my time than I have,” she said.

“I feel like we only have a limited amount of time. And given that, it's the hardest thing in the world.”

Kotb will remain at “Today” until January 2025, but will continue to work for NBC in an unspecified capacity.

The mother of two, who worked for NBC News for nearly 30 years, also wrote a touching letter to her “Today” family announcing her departure.

“As I write this, my heart is racing. I know I am making the right decision, but it is a painful decision,” she wrote.

“And all of you are the reason for that. They say two things can be right at the same time and that's what I feel deeply right now. I love you and it's time for me to leave the show.”

Kotb then thanked some of her closest friends from the networks, including Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie and Bush Hager.

“Savannah: my rock. Jenna: my great love. Al: my oldest friend at 30 Rock,” she wrote.

Although Kotb said she would miss her team, she said her daughters and her mother “need and deserve a bigger piece of my time pie.”