Hoda Kotb went through "something weird" when she turned 60.
The journalist started presenting NBC's 'Today' in 2008 but when she and the team celebrated her milestone birthday in August, she had some sort of epiphany on the spot and knew then it was time to step down from her long-running role.
Speaking on 'The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon', she said: "I think I’m doing this like repotting thing. You know when you pull yourself up by the roots and you’re kind of dangling and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing? What’s happening?’ But you know you’re going to land in fertile ground.
"When I turned 60, something weird happened, man.
"I turned 60 and we had this beautiful party at the 'Today' show and I looked out at the sea of all the people who came and beautiful signs and so many well wishes and I knew in my heart like, this is it, man. This is what the mountaintop must feel like. Like I’d never had that feeling before."
Hoda - who has adoptive daughters Haley, seven, and five-year-old Hope - will officially leave the programme in early 2025, and she noted that it will be strange at first to not have to set an alarm for three o'clock in the morning but is looking forward to being able to take her daughters to school.
She said: "This is going to be totally weird. I’ve woken up at this time for like 17 years. This is the first time, no alarm, click it off. I was telling them, ‘Mommy is going to be able to take you to school,’ and they go, ‘[Gasp] Wednesday?’ ‘No honey, not Wednesday.’ ‘Next week?’ I go, ‘No honey, not next week. Probably somewhere January, February."
