Four months after stepping down from her role as a Today show host, Hoda Kotb returned to the NBC morning series for the first time as a guest.
Kotb, 60, stopped by the show on Wednesday, May 28, to promote her new wellness app and brand, Joy 101, but not before surprising Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin in the crowd of fans outside their 30 Rockefeller Plaza studio window.
Once in the studio, she introduced a video package about her wellness journey, which actually began after Jenna Bush Hager suggested she take a breathwork class. “In the middle of this breathing class, I exploded into tears,” she explained. “And I literally freaked out, but I also felt clarity and calm and energy. I felt clear.”
Kotb said she became a “seeker” and wanted to learn about different wellness practices, which inspired her post-Today career path. “The wave I’m riding right now is magical for me. I’m starting a new business,” she said. “I’m putting all my time and effort into what I hope will make people feel better, which is my favorite part anyway.”
However, Kotb said her “main focus” for the near future is “watching my kids run around on the beach this summer.” Kotb shares her daughters Haley, 8, and Hope, 6, with her ex-fiancé, Joel Schiffman.
Back in the studio, Kotb told Guthrie, 53, and Melvin, 46, that she’s “over the moon” to “bare witness” to her kids’ lives after leaving Today. She went on to detail her Joy 101 app, which launched on Wednesday.
“You hit a button and automatically curated for you is a special program,” she explained. “If you want prayer, it’s on the app. If you want meditation, it’s on the app. If you want help going to sleep, it’s all on there. And so, we’re also gonna have courses. We’re gonna do all kinds of cool things. We’re gonna have retreats. It’s the stuff that we love.”
During the conversation, Kotb said it felt like “not a minute’s passed” since her time on Today. Adressing the recent death of Sheinelle Jones‘ husband, Uche Ojeh, Kotb emphasized that her Today colleagues are a “family.”
She also shut down rumors that she’s replacing Kelly Clarkson on The Kelly Clarkson Show, telling Guthrie and Melvin, “Do you think if I ever came back to TV, do you know where the only place I would ever come back to is? Right here.” (A source also told Us that there was no truth to the rumors.)
The fun continues with Kotb cohosting Wednesday’s episode of Today With Jenna & Friends with Bush Hager, 43, who has led the show’s fourth hour with a lineup of celebrity guest hosts since Kotb’s departure earlier this year.
Kotb bid a tearful farewell to Today on January 10 after 17 years on the show and nearly 30 years at NBC. (Melvin took over her role as Guthrie’s coanchor.)
“Craig, I’m so happy for you. You’ve earned this, you own this, and come Monday at 7 o’clock a.m., I am gonna be dead asleep. But you’re gonna be fantastic,” Kotb said on her final episode. “You’re gonna bring it home. Craig, you’re gonna be so good. You and Savannah are gonna be magic.”
For her last day, the Today cast and crew surprised Kotb with appearances from Kermit the Frog, Gayle King, Jimmy Fallon, Kathie Lee Gifford and more, as well as special video messages and a performance by Walker Hayes. The episode ended with Kotb riding away from the Today studio in a minivan with her daughters.
Less than a week before her exit, Kotb revealed on The Kelly Clarkson Show that she was in the “building process” of creating her own “wellness app and company.” At the time, she told host Kelly Clarkson that the app was set to launch in the spring.
Kotb continued to announce more projects over the following months, including a new season of her “Making Space” podcast and her new book, Jump and Find Joy. She also teased a collaboration with Joanna Gaines via Instagram in February.
Earlier this month, Kotb took to Instagram to announce the launch of her wellness brand’s website. “I woke up again and it’s another calendar day because today is May the 21st. And in one week on May the 28th, I’m launching my new thing!” she said in a May 21 clip. “And I’m so excited and I can’t wait to share it with you, and I can’t sleep. So, here I am in the dark, talking to you.”
Despite her Today return on Wednesday, Kotb previously told Us Weekly that she has “no FOMO” about her decision to step away from the show. “[It] doesn’t mean I didn’t love it. At the end when my heart broke, I was like, ‘That’s love,’” she exclusively shared in February. “But it also is, I feel like my gaze is set forward.”
Noting that she “never had a second thought” about her choice, she continued, “I think if anyone’s ever gone through any kind of an ending and a beginning, sometimes it’s really difficult, but also 100 percent right. And I knew it in my heart. I know it just like I’m saying it today. I knew it then. … It’s sort of like life speaks to you and whispers, and pretty soon, they turn into screams. But I felt the whisper, I knew it, and I didn’t ignore it. I didn’t push it down. I didn’t say, ‘Not right now.’ I knew it was right.”
