Hoda Kotb is ready for life after Today.
The NBC stalwart, 60, is set to leave the popular morning program on Friday, January 10, after 17 years as cohost, and has already lined up her next venture.
During a Monday, January 6, appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Kotb shared that she is starting her own wellness company comprising an app, podcast and retreats. It is expected to launch in the spring, she told host Kelly Clarkson.
Clarkson prised details of the new project out of Kotb using her signature humor. “I have to say though, ma’am, as soon as they told me you were not doing the Today show, I was like, ‘So what’s that bitch doing?’” Clarkson quipped. “I was like, ‘There’s no way you’re not doing anything.’ You’re me — you like projects, you like work.”
Kotb agreed, “I like things, I do,” before explaining how she got “hooked” into wellness “a couple of years ago.” She added, “I started doing stuff that I thought seemed woo-woo and weird, and then all of a sudden as I was doing it, I was like, ‘Wait, I feel calmer, I feel better.’”
Kotb said her new company will allow patrons to “get together and do things I love.”
“And when you’re done, it’s not like going to Mexico with your girls, which is fun. But this is something that when you leave, you’ll go like, ‘Oh my gosh. I feel transformed. I feel different.’ So I’m in the building process of that,” she continued.
Kotb announced her departure from Today in September 2024 after 17 years as cohost and nearly three decades at NBC.
“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new. This is the right time for me to move on,” she said on the show, citing her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, as motivation for the decision.
“I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one,” she added in a letter to her NBC coworkers. “And you all are the reason why. They say two things can be right at the same time, and I’m feeling that so deeply right now. I love you and it’s time for me to leave the show.”
“My time at NBC has been the longest professional love affair of my life,” she continued. “But only because you’ve been beside me on this twenty-six-year adventure. Looking back, the math is nuts. 26 years at NBC News — Ten years at Dateline, seven on the seven o’clock hour, sixteen on the ten o’clock hour.”
Kotb’s final Today, a “Hoda-bration,” airs Friday on NBC. Craig Melvin will take over her role as Savannah Guthrie’s Today coanchor. Today With Hoda & Jenna will be revamped into Today With Jenna & Friends and feature Jenna Bush Hager alongside a rotating lineup of guest hosts until a permanent replacement is picked.
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