Hoda Kotb shares what she’s most excited for in retirement. ‘It’s the simplest thing’
On Jan. 10, Hoda Kotb will host her final “Today” show.
And while it will be an emotional episode of the morning show, Kotb is sharing what she is most excited about when it comes to retirement.
On the Dec. 18 episode of her podcast “Making Space,” Kotb revealed she is excited to make time for school drop-off.
“It’s funny,” she said on the podcast. “When I was mentioning here that I was going to leave the ‘Today’ show, one of our producers came upstairs in the makeup room, and she said, ‘I want to say something to you.’ She goes, ‘My mother walking me to school every day was the best memory I’ve ever had.’”
In Kotb’s goodbye note to her colleagues, the mom of two daughters revealed it was her role as mom that solidified her decision to step away from the morning show.
“My broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead,” she wrote, “and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie. I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited.”
And as Kotb continued on the podcast, she said “all I want to do is walk my kids to school. And it’s the simplest thing, with a cup of coffee, walking your kids to school. But all the little things, you get to see growth.”
While a guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Kotb said her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, are thrilled that their mom will finally be taking them to school more regularly now.
“You know what, you just have a feeling when you watch them grow,” she said. “I was like, they need a little more of me, and I need more of them. And, so, I think it’s all going to work out beautifully.”
In November, it was announced that Craig Melvin, Kotb’s colleague and regular on the “Today” show, would be filling Kotb’s chair at the anchor desk alongside Savannah Guthrie.
As for the fourth hour of the show, which she normally hosts alongside Jenna Bush Hager, it was revealed that a series of celebrities will be rotating in and out, sharing the desk with Hager.