Hoda Kotb’s days of getting up early for the Today The show is coming to an end.

The host announced on September 26 that she is leaving the morning show. Her last day of work will be January 1, 2025.

Kotb initially came as Date line correspondent in 1998 and made Today She ended her career in the show’s history when she was named co-host with Savannah Guthrie in 2018 and will remain with the network in an unspecified role.

Kotb made the announcement on-air, flanked by the Today Showteam. She described her time at the station as “the longest professional love affair of my life”. Her tenure also included co-hosting the popular fourth hour of Todayinitially as Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda and currently as Today with Hoda and Jenna.

Kotb said her decision came after her 60th birthday in August. Although “this is the hardest thing in the world,” she said, she feels ready to “start a new chapter” while she is at the “peak of the wave.” She is looking forward to spending more time with her daughters, Haley Joy and Hope Catherine.

The half Today‘s first all-female moderator team

In January 2018, Kotb and Guthrie made show history as the first female presenter couple Todaywhich premiered in 1952. A newsroom consisting exclusively of women is a rarity in morning television. Good morning America was the first morning show to do so, with Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer from 2006 to 2009.

The journalist had stepped in for Matt Lauer, who was fired in November 2017 due to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Kotb, whose parents are of Egyptian descent, is also the second black woman to Today Moderator’s chair. (Ann Curry was the first – but only for a short time.)

Kotb not only shared news on air, but also her personal ups and downs with Today Viewers. This included documenting her breast cancer treatment when she underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery in 2007. She is also an adoption advocate and shared her journey as she brought her two daughters home in 2017 and 2019. Kotb became a mother for the first time at 52.

She has shared deeply personal moments, including her younger daughter Hope Catherine’s health scare in 2023 and the breaking off of her engagement to Joel Schiffman the year before. (Kotb and Schiffman continue to co-parent.)

What’s next for Kotb?

Let’s start with sleeping in. TodayThe co-host woke up at 3 a.m. every morning to go to work for years. That was before she moved from Manhattan to the suburbs in the summer, which created an even earlier wake-up call.

Now she can get her daughters ready for school. In September, she had to take a day off work to be there for their first day at the new school. (She later said she really enjoyed the walk to school, wearing sneakers, carrying coffee and “being like normal people. It was great!”)

When Kotb announced her departure live, she talked about how her daughters were at the core of her decision.

“Obviously, I had my children late in life and I thought they deserved a bigger piece of my time pie than I did,” she said. “I feel like we only have a limited amount of time.”

Today with Hoda & Jenna’s Jenna Bush Hager told the New York Times that it was “brave” of her co-host “to make the decision to be there for the family and give up something that we all love so much. I think she realized that she wants to wake up to those faces.” (The article mentioned that Hager cried during the interview when she discussed Kotb’s exit.)

Guthrie told the same outlet that she was “super proud” yet “super heartbroken” about Kotb’s decision.

“It takes so much courage to leave a place where you feel so comfortable and where you are so loved,” Guthrie said. “This is not something to be rushed.”

Kotb will continue at NBC News in some form. She told The New York Times that she was also interested in a potential project in the wellness space — she called it “a beautiful, fertile, wonderful place” — but gave no further details.

Kotb currently hosts her podcast, Making room with Hoda KotbShe has also written several books, including I really needed this today: words to live by with inspiring quotes.

Her Instagram account continues to be full of inspirational quotes – between photos of her life as a single mother. The photo she posted on Thursday, shortly before announcing her exit, read: “By the way, I’m wearing the smile you gave me.”