Hoda Kotb might be leaving the “Today” show, but that doesn’t mean her career is in the rearview mirror.
During an appearance on the “Kelly Clarkson Show” Monday, the journalist was probed on her future career plans after she says goodbye to the beloved morning show later this week.
“I have to say though, ma’am, as soon as they told me you were not doing The Today Show, I was like, ‘So what’s that b–h doing?’ ” Clarkson, 42, quipped. “I was like, ‘Because there’s no way you’re not doing anything.’ You’re me, you like problems, you like working.”
“I like things, I do,” Kotb, 60, said. “So, I kind of got hooked in the wellness space, like a couple of years ago. I started doing stuff that I thought seemed woo woo and weird, and then all of a sudden as I was doing it, I was like, ‘Wait, I feel calmer, I feel better.’”
“Woo woo makes you feel good,” Clarkson added.
Kotb revealed that she’s kickstarting her own wellness app and company, which will also include trips and podcasts.
“We can get together, do things that I love, and when you’re done, it’s not like going to Mexico with your girls, which is fun, but this is something that when you leave, you’ll go like, ‘Oh my gosh. I feel transformed. I feel different,’” she said. “So I’m in the building process of that.”
“That’s so healthy to be the voice for that and build a community for that, because I need — a lot of us need — to be better at that,” Clarkson said.
“I’m like, ‘Go, go, go, go.’ A lot of us are. We exhaust ourselves and we’re not good at knowing how to be still or slow down.”
Kotb said the project is set to launch this spring.
“Don’t tell me about it, invite me,” Clarkson quipped.
Kotb’s final day on the show will be on Friday, Jan. 10. It will mark the end of an era as she’s been with NBC for 26 years.
In Nov. 2024, it was announced that Craig Melvin will replace Kotb and co-anchor the first two hours of “Today” alongside Guthrie.
Kotb is also the co-host of the 10 a.m. show “Today with Hoda and Jenna” alongside Jenna Bush Hager, who will be joined by rotating guest co-hosts following Kotb’s exit until her permanent co-host is announced.
In October, Kotb admitted on her show with Bush Hager, 43, that her decision to leave “Today” is “terrifying.”
“When those twinges come up, like, ‘Should you do it? Is it a mistake?’ … I remind myself that there’s still part of me that’s living right here,” she said.
“And that’s normal. Like, let it be. So yeah, it’s scary. Yeah, it’s terrifying — it’s all those things … but it’s also exactly right.”
