While saying goodbye to the Today Show, Hoda Kotb wore necklaces that have become staple pieces.
Each of them are a special nod to her two daughters, Haley Joy and Hope Catherine.
As Kotb shared in the letter she wrote to her Today Show colleagues on Sept. 26, the co-host shared it was time to leave the morning news show and devote more of her time to her kids.
“I saw it all so clearly,” she said of making her decision to leave the show, “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.”
During a 2022 episode, Kotb explained the meaning behind her stack of necklaces.
“‘M’ stands for Mom,” she said of the necklace that features a gold “M” on it.
“I have ‘Haley’ and ‘Hope’ on (one of them),” Kotb continued. “Then I have an ‘I love you Mama’ on this one. All of them are my girls.”
“The ‘M’ is so me. That would be the initial I would want to wear if not my kids’ initials,” she added. “Because who knew that I was gonna get to wear that initial?”
Kotb adopted Haley Joy in 2017 and Hope Catherine in 2019.
While surrounded by her colleagues, Al Roker, Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager, and Sheinelle Jones shared their heartfelt and emotional goodbyes with Kotb, who is expected to remain on the show until Jan. 2025.
Kotb, again, iterated how important it was that she dedicated more of her time to her young daughters.
“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,” she said. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.”
Kotb says she hopes to remain apart of the NBC family in some capacity despite stepping down as the co-host of Today.
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