Hoda Kotb will always have a friend in co-host Savannah Guthrie.
Ahead of her final broadcast on TodayKotb, 60, spoke with PEOPLE on Jan. 9 about the weekly send-off the show deemed a “Hoda-bration.”
The journalist has been receiving mementos and gifts from fans and colleagues all week — and she appreciates every bit of it.
“I love it—I take it, I wear it, I drink it, I eat it, people make cookies,” she gushes. “I’m reading it. I mean, these cards, I can’t with cards. The cards are my favorite part.”
Kotb’s co-host Guthrie also left her with a parting gift. “Savannah just gave me a box and it said ‘Open me now’ and there were two pom-poms in it. She said, ‘You’ve all been cheering everyone on, so now I want you to get these pom poms for you’.”
That’s not all. “She put on the watch with a broken face and said, ‘Charlie broke it,’ which means, you know, I don’t need an alarm clock anymore! And the last thing she gave me was this bracelet. She gave me this ring that says, ‘Love.’ . And she gave me this bracelet that says ‘With you’.”
“I’ll tell you something about her: she always shows up,” Kotb adds of Guthrie. “She always shows up. That’s what she does best. He appears in front of people, in front of his friends. She appears.”
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Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.
Nathan Congleton/NBCU/Getty
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After 17 years on the network, Kotb says it wasn’t easy knowing the end was coming. Although she is happy to move on, she admits that she has been recording all the little moments that she will not experience again.
“I’m trying to slow it all down, that’s what I’m trying to do,” she tells PEOPLE. “On Monday I wished for Wednesday, so I could wish for Friday, the weekend. And I thought about it, in all the weeks, this is the first week that I don’t want Friday to come yet. Because that Friday will be a great sign. ”
“So I thought to myself, slow down, slow down everything,” she continues. “And no one says, ‘I love you,’ like them Today show. Nobody.”
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Hoda Kotb Nov 29, 2023 on NBC’s Today Show.
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
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Kotb, who is also the host Today with Hoda and Jenna along with Jenna Bush Hager, announced her departure from the NBC morning show in September. It was later revealed that Craig Melvin would take over her role as co-host with Guthrie.
Kotb plans to spend more time with her daughters, Haley Joy, 7, and Hope Catherine, 5. She’s also launching a wellness app and company, which will include vacations and a podcast that will launch this spring.
Before leaving the show, she was embracing the next phase of her life.
“Someone told me, ‘When you jump… imagine yourself on the other side. Imagine how you feel. Feel it,’” explains Kotb. “It’s like when you jump from a relationship into a new one, imagine how his hand feels. How do you feel, standing next to him? Do you feel seen, respected, loved? That’s the relationship you want to be in.’”
She adds: “It’s the same with work. Imagine how you feel there. You feed people, you help them with this wellness company. That’s good. And how do you feel otherwise? You feel lighter, you feel inspired, you have more creativity, you slept better. And more importantly than all of that, you’ve become a better mother every day because you have to be there.’”
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Kotb’s last episode Today will be broadcast on Friday, January 10. The Today the show airs weekdays on NBC beginning at 7 a.m. ET.
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Source: HIS Education