NEWSHoda Kotb Decided to Leave 'Today' After Being Asked to Cut Her $20 Million Salary: Report
According to a source, Hoda Kotb decided to leave 'Today' after she found out her salary was going to be cut.
Hoda Kotb may have had no choice but to say goodbye to Today.
According to an insider, the news anchor, 60, was allegedly asked to take a pay cut to her $20 million salary before making the decision to leave the morning show after 26 years.
Hoda Kotb was reportedly asked to take a pay cut on her $20 million salary.
"This is the age of the great resetting of TV news contracts," a source claimed in a Friday, September 27, report. “Everyone is getting their pay cut, or their jobs eliminated."
As OK! previously reported, Kotb shocked the world on Thursday, September 26, when she announced the end of her time at the NBC news program would be at the start of 2025.
Hoda Kotb announced her 'Today' departure on Thursday, September 26.
"I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new," she explained during the live broadcast with her colleagues sitting next to her. "I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, 'This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.' And I thought it can't get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on."
The media personality also emphasized how she wanted more time to be present for her daughters Haley and Hope — whom she shares with ex Joel Schiffman. "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. 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," she added.
Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie have co-anchored 'Today' for more than five years.
- Hoda Kotb's 'Today' Costars 'Shocked' at Her Decision to Leave, Most Didn't Know Until 'a Couple of Days' Before Her Announcement: Insider
- Everything to Know About Hoda Kotb's Exit From 'Today': Why She Left, How Her Costars Reacted and More
- Kathie Lee Gifford Reacts to Hoda Kotb's Shocking 'Today' Exit
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Kotb has shared the morning anchor duties with Savannah Gutherie for the past five years and the fourth hour of Today with Jenna Bush-Hagger. Despite being majorly supportive of their coworker's decision, insiders say people on set were "shocked" by Kotb's announcement.
"There weren’t many people who knew she was considering it," a source claimed. "But she has been thinking about this and contemplating it for a really long time."
Hoda Kotb said she was leaving 'Today' to be with her daughters.
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After Kotb revealed her news, Gutherie emotionally said to her, “We love you so much, and when you look around and you see these tears, they’re love. You are so loved, and honestly ... we don’t want to imagine this place without you.”
Puck spoke with a source about Kotb's alleged pay cut.
