Hoda Kotb Reveals the Real Reason She Left 'Today Show'

Hoda Kotb is addressing her exit from Today in January.

The 60-year-old longtime co-anchor on the daytime show got candid in an interview with People about the last day, as well as the real reason why she finally said goodbye to the series.

“From the minute I walked into 30 Rock that day to the minute I walked out, it’s like this beautiful parade of people were there. Maria Shriver came out, Simone Biles came out, Andy Cohen, Kathie Lee Gifford, Jimmy Fallon. And you know what I remember about it all? I remember my heart breaking,” she admitted.

“When you say goodbye to something you love, even though it’s right, it’s like your heart’s broken and on display.”

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She recalled co-host Jenna Bush Hager bursting into tears, and her daughters Haley, 8, and Hope, 6, joining her on set, with Haley feeling concerned.

“She goes, I’m worried about Jenna.’ Jenna was holding and rocking her, and Haley was sitting there looking like she was protecting Jenna. Some things can be super sad and super beautiful, and that’s what that was,” she said.

Hoda is now launching a wellness company, Joy 101, complete with an app, live events and a subscription newsletter that will all center around themes of joy, mindfulness, meditation and wellness.

“It’s really cool to just realize that there’s so much more to life,” she said.

“I wasn’t able to bear witness to my kids’ daily lives because of what I was doing. I got to see Haley sing ‘What a Wonderful World’ at 9:15 a.m. — I would have missed that. I used to think life was the big things, but it really is all the stuff that happens in between.”

Her family has also been navigating younger daughter Hope’s medical condition over the last two years: she is living with type 1 diabetes.

“It’s kind of constant care for Hope. We’re monitoring her 24/7,” Hoda said, who calls her daughter is a “trooper” for having had to deal with the unpleasant realities of treatment.

“She was getting shots — four or five a day — every day for a year. Now she is getting them less frequently because we have some other means to get her what she needs, but there’s a lot to it, Some kids can have sweets and she can’t. If she’s up in the night, we have to take care of her at night.”

“She is a happy, healthy, rambunctious, amazing kid, and we have to watch her. Diabetes is a part of her, but not all of her. I hope it shapes her but never defines her,” she added.

Being able to be totally available for her daughter became a non-negotiable, which wasn’t possible with her Today schedule.

“I really wanted to and needed to be here to watch over her. So, whenever she needs anything, and it can happen at night, multiple times, I’m up — I’m up up up,” she said.

“But I would never, ever want Hope to one day grow up and say, ‘Oh, my mom left her job because [of me].’ It wasn’t that alone. But if you look at it cumulatively, it was a part of that decision.”

She joked there’s a “split verdict” on having mom available all the time.

“I think that on some days they love it and sometimes I think I might be cramping their style a little bit, because they were used to a morning routine minus me. I still feel like I’m learning how to be a calmer mother, and I want to be that mom for them, so I’m still a work in progress there,” she added.

Hoda notes that she now is “sleeping in” until 4:30 a.m., meditating and writing in her journal, walking her kids to school, going to the gym or a tennis lesson, and then doing work.

“I pick up my guitar a lot more just because I can. I go on walks with the other moms from the burbs here after dinner and I love that. Things I didn’t do before because I was too tired,” she admitted.

“Sometimes I’m right there working in my office, and they’ll run up to the window and wave to me and throw up a heart [with their hands]. They’re fine because they want me to be here, they’re just happy to see me, and then they’ll go off and play,” she said..

At night: “I sleep in the middle so there’s no rolling over — and it is not my favorite sleeping position — but when I wake up and they’re both nuzzled into me, I’m thinking to myself like, ‘Oh my gosh, look at me! I get to lay here with these two kids, and all they want to do is be as close to me as they can get.’”

Find out which 3 celebrities could replace Hoda on Today.