Hoda Kotb to Leave NBC’s “Today” Show

Hoda Kotb, longtime host of NBC’s “Today” show, announced she is leaving early next year. In an interview with The New York Times, Kotb said, “it felt like the time to turn the page on what has been a dream book, a dream quarter-century.”

Kotb joined the network in 1998 as a Dateline correspondent. In 2008, she began hosting the 10 a.m. hour with Kathie Lee Gifford. After Matt Lauer’s abrupt departure following sexual misconduct allegations in 2017, Kotb replaced him as anchor of “Today” alongside Savannah Guthrie. 

Kotb says she made the decision after her 60th birthday, telling The New York Times, “I just thought the universe was speaking to me… This is a time in life for looking inside you, and figuring out what your yearnings are, your callings — where or what direction you’re headed during this new decade.”

Kotb has two daughters, Haley and Hope, both of whom she adopted in her 50s. She told The New York Times, “I have a time pie in front of me…and I think my kids deserve a bigger slice of that pie.”