Hoda Kotb, In Return ‘Today’ Visit, Denies Rumors She Will Succeed Kelly Clarkson With Daytime Talk Show

In her first visit to Today since stepping down as co-host, Hoda Kotb denied that she was looking for a return to daily television via a new daytime talk show that would replace Kelly Clarkson.

“Delete. Not true,” Kotb told her successor, Craig Melvin.

She asked Melvin and Savannah Guthrie, “Do you think, if I ever came back to TV, do you know where the only place where I would ever come back to is? Right here!”

Instead, Kotb’s appearance on Today was to announce a new wellness venture, Joy 101, that will include an app where users can access personalized meditation sessions, courses and conversations. She also has plans for live events and “happiness hours.”

Kotb did say that she will be a guest on Clarkson’s talk show next week.

Kotb departed Today in January with a big sendoff, having served as co-host of the show since 2018. She also had co-hosted the fourth hour of Today along with Jenna Bush Hager, and plans to guest on the show later this morning.

Kotb told Guthrie that their “deep conversations that we had daily, that I miss to my core, were such a building block for what I am building now. It’s fund out what you love. That is what I have been seeking too, and this has been so helpful.”

She also talked of getting to spend more time with her children Hope, 6, and Haley, 8. Her daughter Hope has type 1 diabetes.

“You were next to me through it all. You were in the hospital when it all happened,” Kotb said. “You just get a priority check in your life. I can be here and sweating what is happening to Hope in the morning and the night, or I can be there and feel relief that I can see.”

She added, “One thing I have learned about having Hope … is I try not to put my worry on her.” She said her daughter is fine for most of the days, “but there are just moments where you have to watch her. … For 23 1/2 hours she’s every other kid. So I try to remember that.”