What Katie Couric Has ‘Texted’ Hoda Kotb About Since Her Today Show Exit: ‘Excited for Her’
Katie Couric has been keeping in touch with Hoda Kotb following her exit from the Today show.
“I’ve texted her a couple of times and told her I hope she was sleeping in,” Couric, 68, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, March 6. Couric left Today in 2006 after 15 years on the show to anchor CBS Evening News, becoming the first solo woman in history to anchor a nightly news broadcast.
“Someone was asking me earlier today about leaving the Today show,” Couric told Us, adding that “change and new challenges keeps life interesting and exciting.”
She shared, “If you do something too long, it starts to feel stale no matter how exciting the job may be. So I was excited for Hoda — having anchored the Today show for 15 years — to go and try new things and challenge herself and, you know, be in different venues. I’m really excited for her.”
Kotb, 60, announced her departure from Today in September 2024 after almost 30 years with NBC.
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“I just turned 60, and it was such a monumental moment for me when I turned 60 years old because I started thinking about that decade, like, what does that decade mean? What does it hold? What’s it gonna have for me?” the host tearfully announced at the time. “And I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new.”
She cited wanting to spend more time with her daughters, Haley and Hope, whom she shares with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman, as a major reason for her decision to walk away from the program.
“I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking they deserve a bigger piece of my time, the pie that I have,” she explained. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time. And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world.”
An NBC insider exclusively told Us at the time that Kotb’s exit was a “huge blow” for the series. “She’s the person that everybody loves,” the insider told Us. “She’s the same off-camera as she is on-camera, and I think that’s what’s the hardest thing because that can’t be said for everybody.”
Couric also admitted to Us that while she still watches “some” of the Today show, she doesn’t consume nearly as much of the morning show as she used to.
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“Honestly, in the morning I’m usually up and out. And to be honest with you, like so many people, I get a lot of my content digitally,” she explained to Us. “So, I do, but not consistently, not like I used to, and not like I did when I was actually on it.”
With reporting by Mandi DeCamp
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