Hoda Kotb Felt Mom Guilt Before Deciding to Leave ‘Today’: ‘You Can’t Be 100 Percent at Work’

Hoda Kotb admitted that a large part of the reason why she chose to leave Today was because of the mom guilt she felt. The TV personality is a mom to daughters Haley and Hope, who are the center of her universe.

“There’s the guilt you carry because you can’t be 100 percent at work and 100 percent at home,” Hoda, 60, told People on Wednesday, October 9. “Something has to give if you want excellence. If you’re going to be excellent at work, something has to give at home. And if you want to be excellent at home, I mean excellent, and do all the things, something has to give at work. It can’t be equal.”

Hoda told Today viewers that she was leaving the show during an emotional episode on September 26, sharing that she wanted to spend more time with her daughters while they grow up.

“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,” the Hope Is a Rainbow author explained to the audience and her colleagues. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.”

The mom of two will mark her final episode of Today in early 2025, but she will still remain part of the NBC family after that. Hoda shared that her daughters are so excited for her to be home more.

“I was telling them, ‘Mommy is going to be able to take you to school,’ and they go, ‘Wednesday?’ ‘No honey, not Wednesday.’ ‘Next week?’ I go, ‘No honey, not next week. Probably somewhere January, February,’” she said during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on October 7. “[They said] ‘January, February?’ I might as well continue working forever. For them it’s like ‘til the end.”

During the appearance, Hoda also said that she currently wakes up at 3:15 a.m. to get to work on time on Today. But that will certainly change once she leaves the show.

“I was like, they need a little more of me, and I need more of them. And, so, I think it’s all going to work out beautifully,” she shared of her desire to spend more time with her children.

The talk show personality recently moved into a new home with her kids in the suburbs and was able to take Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, to their first day of school.

“We went for our first day of school,” she told Jenna Bush Hager during a September 4 episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna. “I carried a coffee and I had my sneakers and I walked my kids to school. It was awesome!”

She admitted it was hard to move out of their NYC apartment and into a new place in the suburbs, but the decision was totally worth it for the sake of her girls.

“We’ve had seven great years in the city with kids and that’s amazing, but I also think kids need to have their feet in the grass and dirt,” Hoda explained.