Kotb, who has co-anchored the first two hours of Today with Savannah Guthrie since 2018, said that she was comfortable in her career decision to leave the lucrative job.

‘You know what? I think I’m doing this, like, repotting thing,’ said Kotb, who filled in on the network morning show after Matt Lauer was fired amid sexual harassment allegations.

She continued, ‘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 kind of in fertile ground.’

Fallon credited Kotb for ‘leaving on top,’ adding, ‘No one does this, by the way.’

He said that the life changes in store for Kotb will be ‘fantastic,’ as they noted that she had to wake up at 3:15 a.m. for the job.

‘You’re going to go to concerts!’ he said. ‘You’re going to go out on dates. you’re going to go to restaurants. You’re going to watch bad TV. You’re going to do whatever the heck you want, because you don’t have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning!’

Kotb opened up about how she explained to her daughters – Haley, seven, and Hope, five – about how her decision to depart the NBC show will impact them.

‘I was telling them, you know, “Mommy is going to be able to take you to school,”‘ Kotb said, adding that the extra time off will give both she and her kids essential time with one another.

Kotb opened up about her 26 years at the network, calling it ‘the longest love affair of my life.’

‘And it really is a love affair – and I remember on the first day [working in New York], I had my I.D. and my badge, and I was trying to like scan in – it wasn’t scanning,’ Kotb said. ‘And I was like, “I can’t get in here, this is maybe not working for me already.”‘

She said that ‘a tour group from New Orleans’ who had recognized her from her time working at the city’s CBS affiliate in the 1990s had recognized her – and imbued her with confidence via a pep talk.

‘They were like, “Hoda?” And I go, “Yeah?” “Hi, we’re from New Orleans, now, you hold your head up, hold your head, you go in there, you show them.” And I remember, I was like, “Oh, my God, I can do it.”

‘And I walked in here, and started working – and I remember it like it was yesterday – I was wandering around this big, beautiful building.’

Fallon praised Kotb’s abilities at her craft, telling her, ‘You are fantastic at this job – you created a whole brand – you’re Hoda kotb. Like, people – they need you in their life – you’re part of everyone’s life; I mean, you’re great.’

Kotb recalled how she had a professional awakening learning from veteran newsman Keith Morrison after some initial complications: ‘Something amazing happened … I think from there, I started to get confidence.’

Kotb ended her segment on an emotional note, getting choked up as she thanked Fallon for having her on.

In a memo to her team – and later in an emotional on-air reveal September 26 – Kotb said her 60th birthday this summer helped trigger the departure.

She said, ‘I saw it all so clearly: 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.’

Kotb continued to co-host of the fourth hour of the morning show with Jenna Bush Hager, having previously hosted it alongside Kathie Lee Gifford. Kotb first joined NBC News as a correspondent for Dateline in 1998, and later joined Today in 2007.

Kotb was surrounded by her co-workers when she told viewers of her decision, saying, ‘This is the hardest thing in the world’ and ‘I´ve been practicing so I wouldn´t cry, but anyway, I did.’

‘We love you so much,’ Guthrie, who has co-anchored Today with Kotb for more than five years, said with tears in her eyes. ‘And when you look around and see these tears, they´re love. You are so loved. We don´t want to imagine this place without you. And when you look around and see these tears, they´re love. You are so loved. We don´t want to imagine this place without you.’

Kotb’s goodbye note mentioned many of her co-workers, like Al Roker: ‘Savannah: my rock. Jenna: my ride-or-die. Al: my longest friend at 30 Rock.’

‘Happily and gratefully, I plan to remain a part of the NBC family, the longest work relationship I´ve been lucky enough to hold close to my heart. I´ll be around. How could I not? Family is family and you all will always be a part of mine,’ she wrote.

The move leaves two morning slots open for NBC as it tries to regain the top morning slot from ABC’s Good Morning America, which features Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan.