Savannah Guthrie didn’t mean to make Hoda Kotb cry.
But Hoda, who announced in September that she’d be leaving Today after 17 years and has just a few episodes left, couldn’t help but be overcome with emotion when she opened her coanchor’s Secret Santa present during their Christmas broadcast.
Savannah gifted Hoda a set of wishing candles and a lucite square boasting the quote “May you find a light to guide you home,” the inspirational missive—sampled from Josh Garrels’ “May You Find a Light”—taking on extra meaning as Hoda sets her course for the next chapter of her life.
“It’s a beautiful song that Savannah gave to me every time I was going through something new,” Hoda shared. “And you got candles! Oh, my God. It’s too much.”
Knowing that her friend will still be sticking to a routine (albeit one that doesn’t have to start with a 3 a.m. wakeup call), Savannah noted, “I thought you could put it on your desk in the morning when you’re reading your stuff.”
And there was one more personal touch that had Hoda all choked up.
“You know what I love about this the most?” she told Savannah as the camera zoomed in on her new keepsake. “That’s your handwriting…I love you.”
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Added Savannah, “Cutie, I love you.”
Cue the hugs all around.
But this likely won’t be the last of the waterworks: Hoda’s final episode of Today is slated for Jan. 10.
Announcing Sept. 26 that she’d be leaving the NBC morning show, the mother of daughters Haley Joy, 7, and Hope Catherine, 5—who she shares with ex Joel Schiffman—said it was time to “turn the page at 60, and to try something new.”
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She continued, “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. 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.”
Hoda—who, incidentally, gifted her incoming replacement Craig Melvin a cozy Mets blanket— joined Savannah as Today coanchor in 2018 and continued to cohost the fourth hour of Today with Jenna Bush Hager, who succeeded Kathie Lee Gifford in 2019.
“I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs,” Hoda explained, “and I thought, ‘This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.’ And I thought it can’t get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on.”
But even though she won’t be required to be in hair and makeup before dawn, that doesn’t mean the Making Space With Hoda Kotb podcast host is going to be sleeping in all of a sudden.
“I’ve found out, in my town, there’s a 5:30 Soul Cycle class which I’m going to start,” Hoda told E! News in October of her grand plans for post-Today life. “Then I’m going to go back and feed my kids breakfast and I am going to make a coffee-to-go in my Yeti.”
And then, she continued, “I’m going to walk my kids down the beautiful streets to their school and I’m going to kiss them goodbye.”
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She’ll be “working for a few hours” and then it’s onto leisurely lunches with friends she hasn’t had time to sit down with “in forever,” after which she’ll be picking up her girls, taking them wherever they need to go and making dinner.
“I’ve been thinking about this day,” Hoda said. “Because of me, I need a mini-plan, because I’ve had such structure for so many years. I’m a structure person. So I want to have my own little structure that is full of freedom and the ability to take walks and do things. I’m so excited for it.”
With visions of slightly later alarms and homemade meals dancing in Hoda’s head, enjoy a peek behind the scenes of all the Today show stars’ family worlds:
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Hoda’s Halloween
“Another Halloween in the books,” wrote the host as she celebrated the day with her daughter Haley Joy.
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Carson and Siri’s Bundle of Joy
The anchor and his wife announced the happy news when they welcomed their fourth child, Goldie Patricia Daly!
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Megyn Kelly
Kelly has kept the lives of her three young children—Edward, Yardley, and Thatcher— relatively quiet, but she and her novelist husband make plenty of their own public appearances as a duo.
Steve Mack/Getty Images
Kathie Lee
Hoda’s former co-host is a loving mommy to her own two children, Cassidy Gifford and Cody Gifford, with her late husband, Frank Gifford.
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Savannah Guthrie
The TV personality is a mommy to two little ones, Vale Guthrie Feldman and Charles Max Feldman, with her husband Mike Feldman. She welcomed Charles into the world in December 2016.
Noam Galai/WireImage
Al Roker
The anchor and his wife, Deborah Roberts, are parents to Leila Roker and Nicholas Albert Roker.
Paul Zimmerman/WireImage
Willie Geist
The anchor of Sunday Today has been married to his wife, Christina, since 2003. They’re parents to two children, George William Geist and Lucie Joy Geist.
