Hoda Kotb Announces Huge Career Change to Care for Her Family: ‘My Heart Is All Over the Map’

It’s hard to imagine The TODAY Show without its iconic host Hoda Kotb, but the broadcast veteran is moving on to different things. The mom of two just announced she is leaving TODAYin order to take care of her family — and our hearts go out to her for this incredibly difficult decision.

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Kotb, who has been with NBC for 26 years, announced Thursday morning that she is leaving the show at the beginning of 2025, but will remain a part of the NBC family in some capacity.

“As I write this, my heart is all over the map,” she said in a letter to staff. “I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one. And you all are the reason why. They say two things can be right at the same time, and I’m feeling that so deeply right now. I love you and it’s time for me to leave the show.”

She called out her “professional relationships [who] have become some of my most cherished friendships,” like co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager. Kotb explained that after she turned 60 in August, she felt like it was time for a change. “My broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie,” she continued. “I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited.”

On the show today, she reiterated her decision to focus on her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5. “Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have,” she said. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time. And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world.”

She’s already been making moves to show where her priorities lie. In March, Kotb announced that she and her daughter were moving out of their New York City apartment, where they’ve lived since Kotb adopted her daughters in 2017 and 2019, to live in a new suburban home.

“I want my kids to feel grass on their feet, and play in the yard, and ride bikes down the street, and run up and down the stairs,” she told PEOPLE previously. “I just see that life for them in this perfect house in this beautiful little town where I know they’ll be able to blossom into beautiful, independent, strong women.”

She added that she’s in a “repotting phase” of life right now. “It’s like my roots need a bigger pot,” Kotb told the outlet. “You know when you take a plant out of a pot, and it’s roots are all twisted and tight? And then you put it in a bigger pot with fresh new soil and it just grows bigger and stronger? That’s the journey I’m on right now. And it’s going to hurt a little, to leave that pot that was so comfortable for so long. But in the end, it’s going to be exactly what we need.”

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