Hoda Kotb is opening up about her decision a few months ago to leave NBC’s Today Show.
The 60-year-old, who has co-hosted the fourth hour of Today since 2007 and worked as an NBC News correspondent since 1998, announced in late September that she was leaving the network after 26 years.
The mother of two appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday, where she revealed how she told her Today co-star Savannah Guthrie the news.
“I called Savannah, who was out of the country, and I said, ‘I have something to tell you.’ She says, “This sounds scary,” Kotb revealed.
Kotb said she continued, “It’s not. I’m going to, you know, say goodbye in January.”
The host then revealed the surprising and brash response Guthrie gave her, and also revealed how her Today Hour 4 co-host Jenna Bush Hager reacted.
Hoda Kotb is opening up about her decision a few months ago to leave NBC’s Today Show
The mother of two appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday, where she revealed how she told her Today co-star Savannah Guthrie the news
‘She (Savannah) said to me, “I’m going to tell you something now.” And I said, “Okay.” She said: these are her words. She says, ‘You’ve got balls,'” Kotb said, laughing.
Guthrie added, “I will be sad for myself and for our show later, but not today. Today is the day I say, wow, you’re doing it.’
Kotb said Bush Hager “did the exact opposite. She said, “No, no, there’s time. No, stop. Stop. Stop. Don’t say any more words.”
She said that after she made the announcement live on air, she received an “avalanche” of texts and calls, with Meyers joking that people would ask her to go to breakfast now.
Kotb admitted that she won’t miss getting up at 3 a.m., although she will miss the NBC commissioner, adding that when her children Haley Jay and Hope Catherine come to visit, “the only thing they ask for is to go to the ninth floor, the commissary’. .’
Her children were ultimately the reason she decided to leave the show, admitting that she thought about leaving “for a while.”
‘I wondered: when was the right time? And I thought we all have a time pie and you get to decide how much of your time pie your kids get and how much your work gets? And so I thought, you know, it’s time for my kids to get a bigger share,” Kotb said.
She has also been on air for much of NBC’s holiday programming, such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and most recently the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lightning, which she said “hit me strangely.”
‘She (Savannah) said to me, “I’m going to tell you something now.” And I said, “Okay.” She said: these are her words. She says, ‘You’ve got balls,'” Kotb said, laughing
Guthrie added, “I will be sad for myself and for our show later, but not today. Today is the day I say: wow, you’re doing it’
She said that after she made the announcement live on air, she received an “avalanche” of texts and calls, with Meyers joking that people would ask her to go to breakfast now.
She has also been on air for many NBC holiday programs, such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and most recently the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lightning, which she said “hit me weird.”
‘I thought to myself… I looked around for a moment. You know how sometimes moments pass by and you’re not there. I was completely into it. “I thought, ‘This is it now,’” she said.
She also admitted to saying hello to the people lining up outside Rockefeller Center every morning.
‘You know what? “If there are people queuing between 4:30 and 5 a.m. when I come in, I always stop and hang out, take pictures and stuff,” she said.
“Because if you’re standing outside our studio at that hour, you deserve some love,” Kotb admitted.