It’s the end of an era: Hoda Kotb announced that, after 17 years on the TODAY show, she’ll depart the morning show in early 2025.

The longtime anchor shared the news on September 26, surrounded by her TODAY colleagues and friends Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager, Sheinelle Jones, and Craig Melvin, telling herself to “be cool” as she teared up.

“So I was doing the math and I realized that I have spent 26 years at NBC, 16 years on The Ten, and seven years with you. And I just turned 60,” Kotb told them, and the audience, referring to her August 9 milestone birthday.

“And it was such a monumental moment for me when I turned 60 years old, because I started thinking about that decade,” she continued. “Like, what does that decade mean, what does it hold and what’s it going to have for me? And I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new.”

“And I think I realized, this was so crazy, but remember our 60th birthday that we had? It was so — like, I can see it,” she said. “And I remember standing outside, looking at this beautiful bunch of people with all of these gorgeous signs, and I thought, like, this is what the top of the wave feels like for me. And I thought, it can’t get better.”

Why is Hoda Kotb leaving TODAY?

After 17 years on the TODAY show, Hoda Kotb announced that she will be leaving the morning news program in early 2025 to focus on her next chapter.

“I think I’m doing this, like, ‘repotting’ thing,” Kotb told Jimmy Fallon during an October 7 Tonight Show appearance. “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.”

Kotb also told Fallon that for the past 17 years, 3:15 in the morning is her “usual wake-up” to helm the TODAY show from 7-11 a.m. “with a break in there.”

“You’re gonna go to concerts, you’re gonna go out on dates, you’re gonna go to restaurants, you’re gonna watch bad TV, you’re gonna do whatever the heck you want because you don’t have to wake up at three in the morning,” Fallon told her.

During her TODAY announcement, Kotb shared that she also wants to spend more time with her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5.

“I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on. And then I thought about, obviously I had my kiddos late in life,” Kotb said during her tearful announcement. “And I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have. I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.”

Kotb echoed that statement during her chat with Fallon. “They need a little more of me, and I need more of them,” she said, adding that she’s excited to take her daughters to school.

“So with all of that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world, because I just, today I was looking at my phone, and all of you guys are holding my kids. And I was like, oh, my gosh! I kept looking at them, all the pictures,” she added.

Kotb reassured fans that she isn’t leaving just yet. “I’m going to be here past the first of the year and stay in the NBC family, but it’s kind of a big deal for me,” she said. “I’ve been practicing so I wouldn’t cry, but, anyway, I did.”

“There’s no way there wasn’t going to be tears,” Guthrie, who was choked up herself, said. “Hoda, we love you so much. And when you look around and see these tears, they’re love. You are so loved.”

“And honestly, I don’t think any of us can imagine – we don’t want to imagine this place without you,” Guthrie continued. “So it’s complicated, because we love you so much and we don’t want you to ever go. But also, I just want to say, I am so proud of my friend.”

“And it’s not over,” said Hager, “because I’m going to be showing up at your house, like, the stalker you are to Zac Brown. I’ll be there on your doorstep, and we are your friends forever.”

“We love you enough to let you go shine, run after your dreams and go find this next chapter,” Guthrie continued later in the segment. “We frankly can’t wait to see what you do, but we’ll just be here waiting for you.”

Ahead of her on-air announcement, Kotb told 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.”