Hoda Kotb leaving NBC's 'Today' show

Hoda Kotb, one of NBC's most notable broadcasters and a staple of the "Today" show for nearly two decades, will depart the program next year.

The broadcaster announced the news Thursday, expressing a desire to spend more time with her family and indicating she intends to stay "a part of the NBC family" after she leaves "past the first of the year" in 2025.

"I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new," she said. "This is the right time for me to kind of move on. And then I thought about — 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. ... This is the hardest thing in the world."

Kotb stepping down opens up a major anchoring vacancy at NBC that will be widely coveted internally at the network.

She has served as a co-host of "Today" since 2017, when anchor Matt Lauer was ousted over allegations of sexual misconduct and has hosted the program since then with Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and most recently Craig Melvin.

Kotb first joined NBC in the late 1990s, is a breast cancer survivor and has been a part of several initiatives to raise awareness about the disease.