Hoda Kotb Is Saving Followers’ ‘Immediately’ Present Indicators for Her Children (Unique)

• On Friday, Jan. 10, Hoda Kotb will co-anchor the Immediately present for the final time after saying her departure in September
• Kotb tells PEOPLE, “I haven’t got any phrases,” in the case of the way in which the followers have proven up for her all through her last week
• “No person says, ‘I really like you,’ just like the Immediately present,” the mom of two says

Hoda Kotb’s been taking all of it in throughout her final week on the Immediately present.

“It is actually been a journey,” Kotb, 60, tells PEOPLE. “I maintain getting misplaced in individuals’s eyes. That is what I maintain feeling once I see individuals, particularly on the [Today] Plaza. They relay a narrative about one thing that occurred or one thing they made.”

“Virtually each bracelet I am sporting got here from somebody on the Plaza. Some has my identify. This one says, ‘Unicorn,’ this one says, ‘Leo’s roar.’ Somebody made one with the date of my final day, 01/10/2025,” she continues. “Whether or not it is a piece of bijou or a stuffy or someone crocheted one thing lovely, there are fixed reminders.”

And Kotb treasures all of them. In truth, she loves them a lot that she plans on protecting them to indicate her daughters Hayley, 7, and Hope, 5, at some point,

“I requested our guys to roll up each signal that folks made so I may take them dwelling,” she says. “I need them in my home. They go, ‘We bought you. We will take all of them dwelling.’ At some point my youngsters are going to unroll them and go, ‘What did you used to do?’ I will be like, ‘Look, it is a lengthy story,’ however I actually wish to maintain onto issues. I am taking it. I am sporting it, I am consuming it, I am consuming it. I am studying it. I imply, I can not with the playing cards. The playing cards are my favourite half.”

The mother of two says she feels “so touched and overwhelmed” by the entire tributes followers have introduced her forward of her final day on Friday, Jan. 10. “I can not even imagine what’s taking place right here this week,” Kotb says.

The week, which the Immediately present deemed a “Hoda-bration”, kicked off by reuniting Kotb with 70 of her former Tri Delta sorority sisters from Virginia Tech on Monday, Jan. 6. Her co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager additionally teamed up with one in all Kotb’s favourite authors, Charlie Mackesy, writer of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, and gifted her a particular portray.

On Tuesday, Jan. 7, Kotb reconnected with the household of a girl she met with via the breast most cancers group (Kotb was recognized with breast most cancers in 2007) whereas internet hosting the #PinkPowerTODAY sequence in 2016 that celebrated girls who have been recognized with the illness. Two days later, she reunited with a pair whose marriage ceremony she officiated on Valentine’s Day 2023 and so they gave her flowers they preserved from their special occasion.

“I haven’t got any phrases,” Kotb says. “In your lifetime, when you get one shock get together, that is unbelievable. And till I labored right here, I by no means had that. However whenever you work right here, one thing occurs. They invite your school sorority sisters to come back and say goodbye. They bring about on all these unbelievable individuals who you had the privilege of interviewing. No person says, ‘I really like you,’ just like the Immediately present.”

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With each passing day, Kotb finds herself wanting the week to decelerate.

“On Monday, I used to want for Wednesday, so I may want for Friday, the weekend, and I used to be fascinated with it in all of the weeks,” the I Actually Wanted This Immediately writer says. “That is the primary week that I do not need Friday to come back simply but. As a result of that Friday goes to be a giant marker, so I used to be considering to myself, decelerate, gradual the whole lot down.”

Nonetheless, the journalist expects Friday, Jan. 10, to start out like another workday.

“Eddie’s going to select me up like he does every single day and has every single day. And we at all times have a playlist,” Kotb says. “I will say, ‘Hello’ to our safety guards like I do every single day, I will go in and see Laura and Mary, my long-time hair and make-up staff, and we’ll have deep and significant conversations. I am going to concentrate, I will learn my scripts. I do not know what I will do apart from maintain on for so long as I can.”

Kotb introduced in September that she’d be stepping away from the Immediately present after 17 years — and a complete of 25 with NBC. She plans to spend extra time together with her youngsters and begin a wellness app and firm, which can contain retreats and a podcast launching this spring.

“Somebody stated to me, ‘Think about your self on the opposite aspect. Think about what you’re feeling like,’” Hotb says. “You are nourishing individuals, you are serving to them with this wellness firm. You are feeling lighter, you’re feeling impressed, you’ve extra creativity, you slept higher. And extra importantly than all of it’s, you turned a greater mom every single day since you bought to be there. So I used to be fascinated with all these issues.”

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Kotb’s last episode of Immediately and Immediately with Hoda and Jenna will air on Friday, Jan. 10. The Immediately present airs weekdays on NBC starting at 7 a.m. ET.