Kathie Lee Gifford announced Tuesday she’s leaving NBC’s “Today” show.
She joined the fourth hour of the show in 2008, intending to stay only one year. Lee says she stayed 11 years because she fell in love with co-host Hoda Kotb and the “amazing group of people” she works with.
“I’ve been in this business 120 years and never worked with a more beautiful group of people who just give, give, give, every day,” Gifford said on the show Tuesday morning. “Four hours of live television every day, five days a week and we have fun. We laugh and support each other and we know each other’s kids’ names and we know somebody’s having a colonoscopy and we know everything, and we do life together and nobody more so than my Hoda.”
“The minute you stepped into my life with both feet everything changed,” Kotb added.
Gifford will stay through the show’s 11th anniversary on April 7, 2019.
She plans to focus her attention on other endeavors including film, music and book projects.
NBC News President Noah Oppenheim says the 10 a.m. hour of “Today” will continue to include Hoda Kotb.
