New episodes of Hoda’s podcast are available every Wednesday — just search “Making Space” wherever you get your podcasts, or .
Hoda Kotb is as excited as possible to do one simple act once she leaves TODAY.
Hoda, whose last day on the program is Jan. 10, 2025, sat down with Walker Hayes on the Dec. 18 episode of her “Making Space” podcast and revealed she is giddy at the thought of taking her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, to school.
“It’s funny,” she said. “When I was mentioning here that I was going to leave the TODAY show, one of our producers came upstairs in the makeup room, and she said, ‘I want to say something to you.’ She goes, ‘My mother walking me to school every day was the best memory I’ve ever had.’
“And all I want to do is walk my kids to school. And it’s the simplest thing, with a cup of coffee, walking your kids to school. But all the little things, you get to see growth.”
Hoda announced in September that she will be leaving TODAY after 26 years at NBC News, although she will remain with the news division while she practices “repotting” in her new chapter of life.
Taking her kids to school and being with them is an idea that Hoda has spoken about before.
“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,’” she said in October on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Hoda also said it was vital she be present for her daughters.
“You know what, you just have a feeling when you watch them grow,” she said. “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.”
Hoda also highlighted the importance of being with her kids when she made the announcement on TODAY that she would be leaving the show.
“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.”
Hoda has also grappled with balancing being a parent with her professional responsibilities.
“There’s the guilt you carry because you can’t be 100 percent at work and 100 percent at home,” she told People in October. “Something has to give if you want excellence.”