Hoda Kotb announced that she is leaving the “Today” show in early 2025 after co-anchoring the morning show for more than five years.
Kotb announced the decision in a letter shared with colleagues, Today.com reported.
The departure comes after more than 25 years at NBC News. Kotb previously worked at “Dateline” and served as co-host of the fourth hour of “Today” with both Kathie Lee Gifford and Jenna Bush Hager. She stepped into the role of co-anchor after Matt Lauer left amid sexual misconduct allegations and spent five years working alongside Savannah Guthrie and other hosts.
“My time at NBC has been the longest professional love affair of my life,” she wrote in the letter, according to Today.com. “But only because you’ve been beside me on this twenty-six year adventure.”
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images/TODAY
Kotb said in her letter that she still plans to “remain a part of the NBC family,” but did not elaborate on what her role at the network would be after her departure. She did not give an exact date for her departure, but said she would “work until early 2025”.
Kotb recently celebrated its 60th birthday with a feature at Today Plaza. She said the emotional moment spurred her to make the decision to leave.
“I have been weighing this decision for quite some time – Am I really ready?” she wrote. “But mine sixty year celebration on the Plaza felt like a shift. Like a massive, happy YES, you are! I saw everything so clearly: my broadcasting career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life is ahead of me, and now my daughters and my mother need and deserve a bigger part of my time pie. I will miss you all desperately, but I am ready and excited.”
Kotb has two children: Haley Joy, whom she adopted in 2017, and Hope Catherine, who she adopted in 2019. She shared both children with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman; the couple separated in 2022.
A replacement for Kotb was not immediately announced.