Savannah Guthrie wasn’t surprised by cohost Hoda Kotb‘s decision to leave the Today show.
“Hoda and I have had this discussion for years and years,” Guthrie, 52, exclusively told Us Weekly at Project Healthy Minds 2nd Annual World Mental Health Day Gala at Spring Studios in New York City on Thursday, October 10. “We’re dear friends and we have a lot of similarities. We’re basically in the same phase of life.”
Guthrie understood why Kotb, 60, chose to prioritize her family, adding, “We have these little kids that we both feel so lucky that we got to have later in life. It makes a lot of sense to me what she has decided.”
After hosting the talk show with Kotb since 2018, Guthrie is preparing for the next chapter of Today without her pal.
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“I was so sad for myself and for the show because — to me — she’s irreplaceable. I was happy for her as her friend,” Guthrie noted. “I just think she’s being so creative and so bold and stepping out into this amazing new future that she doesn’t exactly know what it will look like. She believes in herself and she knows and she hears that call. I find that to be incredible.”
Kotb’s career at NBC News has spanned nearly three decades after a previous stint at Dateline. She has been cohosting Today with Guthrie following Matt Lauer’s exit. She also hosted the third hour with Kathie Lee Gifford and then Jenna Bush Hager.
“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new. This is the right time for me to move on,” Kotb announced the news on-air last month,citing her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, as motivation for the decision. “We love you so much and that no one at the show wants to imagine this place without you.”
Kotb clarified she wasn’t leaving NBC completely.
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“My time at NBC has been the longest professional love affair of my life. But only because you’ve been beside me on this twenty-six-year adventure. Looking back, the math is nuts. 26 years at NBC News — Ten years at Dateline, seven on the seven o’clock hour, sixteen on the ten o’clock hour,” she continued. “I’m picturing your faces and your families and all the ways you’ve lifted me up and inspired me. That’s my heart singing. So many of my professional relationships have become some of my most cherished friendships.”
She concluded: “Savannah: my rock. Jenna: my ride-or-die. Al: my longest friend at 30 Rock. Craig, Carson, Sheinelle and Dylan: my family. Libby, Mazz and Talia: my fearless leaders,” she said. “I will miss each and every one of you at TODAY desperately.”
Guthrie told Us how she first found out about Kotb’s exit, sharing, “It was the Monday before the world found out and she called me because I had had the day off and I was traveling. She called me and the first thing I said to her is, ‘I’m proud of you. I love you, you’re amazing. And it doesn’t matter where we sit, we’ll always be by each other’s side.’”
Before Kotb officially signs off in January 2025, Guthrie reflected on how their connection was solidified on screen.
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“On the surface, it’s the same show and we’re still a news show where we’re covering the news and then doing fun things in the later hours. But I love our connection and I love our partnership and I’m really proud of it. In many, many ways, it was effortless,” she continued. “It’s pretty easy to love Hoda and it’s easy to trust Hoda. She’s such an incredible journalist as well as being a ray of sunshine. If you have to get up at these hours, you want to get up with Hoda. I hope that feeling of joy and partnership and trust is pervasive and that we carry on her legacy.”
Guthrie also spoke about how she has been prioritizing important cases outside of the show — including the World Mental Health Day Gala.
“My kids are little. They’re 10 and 7 and we talk a lot about our feelings and feelings are welcome in our house,” the news anchor, who shares daughter Vale, 10, and son Charley, 7, with husband Michael Feldman, shared. “We’re not afraid of our feelings. Feelings are just information and not necessarily a reality.”
She continued: “We’re allowed to work through our feelings and say what’s on our minds and our hearts. I try to live that out and let them know that they’re accepted and loved and embraced by me and their dad and their family and by God. Like all parents, you have good moments and bad moments, but that’s my goal.”
With reporting by Andrew Nodell
