Hoda Kotb is ready for her new normal.
Nearly two weeks after the longtime Today cohost announced she will be leaving the morning show early next year, the journalist shed new light on her decision to walk away after more than 16 years.
“I think I’m doing this like repotting thing,” Hoda told Jimmy Fallon during an Oct. 7 appearance on The Tonight Show. “You know when you pull yourself up by the roots and you’re kind of dangling and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing? What’s happening?’ But you know you’re going to land in fertile ground.”
While Hoda's Sept. 26 announcement might have surprised Today fans, she revealed the exact moment she knew she needed to leave occurred earlier this summer.
“When I turned 60, something weird happened, man,” she explained. “I turned 60 and we had this beautiful party at the Today show and I looked out at the sea of all the people who came and beautiful signs and so many well wishes and I knew in my heart like, 'This is it, man.' This is what the mountaintop must feel like. Like I’d never had that feeling before.”
And while Jimmy noted she's "leaving on top" after working at NBC for 26 years, Hoda rejoiced in the fact that she won't have to wake up for work at 3:15 a.m. for the first time in nearly two decades.
As for how her daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, reacted to her decision?
“I was telling them, ‘Mommy is going to be able to take you to school,’ and they go, ‘Wednesday?’" she recounted. "‘No honey, not Wednesday.’ ‘Next week?’ I go, ‘No honey, not next week. Probably somewhere January, February.'" They said, ‘January, February?!’ I might as well continue working forever. For them it’s like till the end.”
But after Hoda officially signs off, she can't wait to spend all her newly free time with her two kids, who she shares with ex Joel Schiffman.
“You just have a feeling when you watch them grow," the 60-year-old noted. "I was like, 'They need a little more of me and I need more of them,' so I think it’s all gonna work out beautifully."
But it’s not goodbye for good, as she added, "I’m going to be doing stuff at NBC, I’m going to stay in the family.”
Keep reading for a closer look at the Today show's family album photos.
Sheinelle Jones
The cohost of the third hour of Today shares son Kayin as well as twins Uche and Clara with her late husband Uche Ojeh, who passed away in May 2025 after a courageous battle with brain cancer.
“With all three of my children, I try to show them that they're ALL a team, and they have to take care of each other," Sheinelle wrote in a 2015 essay for Today. “At the same time, I'm learning that they each like to know they're special on their own."
Craig Melvin
Three years after the anchor married fellow broadcaster Lindsay Czarniak in 2011, he earned his most cherished title yet: father.
And now, he seizes every opportunity to gush about their son Delano and daughter Sybil.
"When I wake up in the morning," Melvin said to his son during a May 2024 episode of Today, "part of the reason I work so hard is for you and your sister."
Jenna Bush Hager
The Today with Jenna & Friends cohost and her husband Henry Hager are proud parents to kids Mila, Poppy and Hal.
As she put it during a March 2025 episode of the morning show, “I’m pretty sure I’ve come to terms that three, even though it’s an imperfect number, it’s the perfect number for our household."
Hoda Kotb
"Another Halloween in the books," wrote the former host as she celebrated the day with her daughter Haley Joy.
She is also mom to daughter Hope Catherine.
Lester Holt
The former NBC Nightly News anchor shares sons Stefan Holt and Cameron Holt with his wife Carol Hagen.
But more recently, he became a proud "granddude" to three grandchildren: Henry, Samuel and James.
“When my daughter-in-law was pregnant with her first baby ... she said, ‘Well, what do you guys want to be called?’" Holt said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2021. "I said, ‘I think I want to be ‘Granddude’ because ‘grand,’ it bows to the fact that I’m older. But ‘dude’ says, ‘I still got a little bit. I still got a little,’ you know?"
Carson Daly
In 2020, the anchor and his wife Siri Pinter welcomed their fourth child, Goldie. The little one joined the couple's older kids Jackson, Etta and London.
Kathie Lee
Hoda's former cohost is a loving mommy to her own two children, Cassidy Gifford and Cody Gifford, with her late husband Frank Gifford.
Savannah Guthrie
The TV personality is a mom to two little ones, Vale Guthrie Feldman and Charles "Charley" Max Feldman, with her husband Mike Feldman.
Al Roker
The anchor and his wife Deborah Roberts are parents to Leila Roker and Nicholas Albert Roker.
Willie Geist
The anchor of Sunday Today has been married to his wife Christina Geist since 2003. They're parents to two children, George William Geist and Lucie Joy Geist.
(E! and Today are both part of the NBCUniversal family)