Kathie Lee Gifford leaving 'Today' show after 11 years: Read her statement

Updated
Kathie Lee Gifford leaving 'Today' show after 11 years: Read her statement

Kathie Lee Gifford is saying goodbye to "Today."

In an email memo sent to NBC staffers on Tuesday, NBC News president Noah Oppenheim announced that Gifford would be leaving the network's premiere morning show after over 10 years as co-host of the 10 a.m. hour with Hoda Kotb.

Her last day will be the show's next anniversary: April 7, 2019.

"It is with mixed emotions that I share the news Kathie Lee Gifford has decided it’s time to leave 'TODAY,'" he wrote. "As we all know, Kathie Lee’s plate has been overflowing lately with film, music and book projects, and after giving us eleven extraordinary years, she’s decided to focus her attention full-time on those other creative endeavors."

"Through the years, Kathie Lee has never let us down," he added later. "She’s turned our lives around and she’s brought some of the sweetest days we’ve found."

"In 2008, I joined the TODAY Show family intending to spend one year. But something unexpected happened along the way: I fell in love with a beautiful, talented, extraordinary Egyptian goddess named Hoda, and an amazing group of individuals who work tirelessly and joyfully at their jobs, many of them starting at midnight, creating an unprecedented four hours of live television," Gifford told Oppenheim. "I stayed year after year making a million memories with people I will never forget. I leave TODAY with a grateful heart but I’m truly excited for this new creative season in my life. Many thanks to all the wonderful people who made the years fly by."

Gifford confirmed her departure live during her hour of "Today" on Tuesday morning, too.

"Never worked with a more beautiful group of people," she said.

"The minute you stepped into my life, it changed," Kotb added. "You chose me, and that's how it started. I was thinking about how everything good that's happened in my life, has happened since you came."

As for the future of the 10 a.m. hour, speculation is surely set to start, especially as Kotb finishes her first full year as co-anchor of "Today" alongside Savannah Guthrie. Oppenheim said that Kotb is "of course" going to stay on the show's fourth hour.

"We will have much more to share before then about our plans for that hour, which will, of course, continue to include Hoda," he wrote. "Please join me in congratulating Kathie Lee on a dazzling run at TODAY. We look forward to celebrating her in the months to come."

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