Hoda Kotb Tearfully Announces She's Quitting the 'Today' Show at 'the Top of the Wave'

An era is ending in morning TV as Hoda Kotb announced Thursday that she is leaving the show.

“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” she said in a video clip posted to YouTube.

“I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, 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,” she said.

Kotb noted that her two daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, need a mom.

“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,” she said.

“And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world,” Kotb continued.

Kotb will remain on the show until early next year.

“It’s kind of a big deal for me. I’ve been practicing this so I wouldn’t cry, but anyway, I did,” Kotb said.

Savannah Guthrie praised Kotb even as she said she did not want her to go.

“But also I just want to say I am so proud of my friend. You have guts,” she said.

“For someone to leave at the top of their game, to leave something that’s wonderful that you love, where it’s easy and comfortable and beautiful and fun, and say, ‘But I dream bigger for myself into the great unknown.’ You have so much guts. You inspire me. I love you,” Guthrie said.

“I have never known anybody like you,” Al Roker said.

Kotb shared a note to her colleagues that was posted on Today’s website.

“As I write this, my heart is all over the map. I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one. 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,” she wrote.

“I’ve been weighing this decision for quite a while – Am I truly ready? But, my sixtieth birthday celebration on the Plaza felt like a shift. Like a massive, joyful YES, you are!” Kotb added.

“I saw it all so clearly: my broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, 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,” she continued.

Kotb said she would stay with NBC in an unspecified role.

Kotb started with NBC as a correspondent for “Dateline” in 1998, according to NBC. She joined “Today” in 2007.

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