Hoda Kotb Opens Up About Her Today Show Exit: ‘I Knew in My Heart, This Is It’

• Hoda Kotb shared that her decision to leave ‘Today’ came about when she celebrated her 60th birthday over the summer
• Kotb added that she looked at the “sea” of people celebrating her birthday party and thought “This is what the mountaintop must feel like”
• “They need a little more of me and I need more of them,” Kotb added about her desire to spend more time with her daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5

Hoda Kotb is opening up about her surprise Today show exit. 

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday, Oct. 7, the 60-year-old shared that her decision came about after she hit her milestone birthday over the summer. 

“I think I’m doing this like repotting thing,” the journalist said. “You know when you pull yourself up by the roots and you’re kind of dangling and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing? What’s happening?’ But you know you’re going to land in fertile ground.”

“When I turned 60, something weird happened, man,” she continued. “I turned 60 and we had this beautiful party at the Today show and I looked out at the sea of all the people who came and beautiful signs and so many well wishes and I knew in my heart like, this is it, man. This is what the mountaintop must feel like. Like I’d never had that feeling before.” 

Kotb then went on to share that she has woken up at 3:15 a.m. to do the show for the last 17 years. 

“What am I gonna do at night?” she joked, before host Jimmy Fallon noted that she can now go to concerts, go on dates, go to restaurants, watch bad TV and “do whatever the heck you want.”  

“This is going to be totally weird. I’ve woken up at this time for like 17 years. This is the first time, no alarm, click it off,” she said, adding that her time at Today and her 26 years at NBC were “the longest love affair of my life.”  

Fallon, 50, then asked Kotb what her daughters — Haley, 7, and Hope, 5 — thought about her decision. 

“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 explained. “They said, ‘January, February?’ I might as well continue working forever. For them it’s like till the end.” 

Opening up further about her decision to leave to focus on her young family, she continued, “You know what, you just have a feeling when you watch them grow. I was like, they need a little more of me and I need more of them, so I think it’s all gonna work out beautifully. But I’m going to be doing stuff at NBC, I’m going to stay in the family.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

Kotb announced her departure from her anchoring duties in a letter to staff of the NBC morning show on Sept. 26.

“As I write this, my heart is all over the map,” she wrote. “I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one. And you all are the reason why. They say two things can be right at the same time, and I’m feeling that so deeply right now. I love you and it’s time for me to leave the show.”

Kotb continued, “My broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie. I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

She added that she will remain in her current role until the beginning of 25 and also plans to “remain a part of the NBC family.”

“I’ll be around. How could I not? Family is family and you all will always be a part of mine,” Kotb said.