It’sKathie Lee Gifford‘s last week at theTodayshow — and it’s getting emotional.
On Monday, Gifford surprised her co-hostHoda Kotbwith a parting gift during her final installment of their popular segment, “Favorite Things.”
Gifford, 65, then unveiled the painting, which is a portrait of Kotb, 54, and her 2-year-old daughterHaley Joy.Underneath the image are the words, “My joy is non-negotiable” — a phrase that’s become particularly meaningful to Kotb since shewelcomed her little one into her lifeback in 2017.
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“I love you,” Gifford said as Kotb, who was speechless, started tearing up.
“I think we’d better go to commercial. Hurry up!” Gifford quipped as the longtime co-anchors embraced.
Gifford announced in December thatshe would be leavingthe network in the spring after 11 years in the role to pursue personal projects, including producing Christian music and films.Jenna Bush Hager, 37, willtake over co-hosting dutiesfor the NBC morning show’s fourth hour alongside Kotb.
“I thought I’d stay a year and here it is, 11 years later,” Gifford recently told PEOPLE in anexclusive interview. “And in those 11 years a lot of life has happened.”
“The work that I want to do isn’t here anymore,” she continued, gesturing around her dressing room at the show’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studio. “I am an artist, I’m an actress, I’m a writer, I’m a songwriter, a director now. That’s the stuff that feeds my soul and I know that I’m running out of time to do those things.”
Kotb is proud of Gifford forstarting overafter losing her husband of 29 years,Frank Gifford, in 2015.
“Kathie Lee’s been through all the phases of her life in front of America and sharing it for the world, really,” Kotb told PEOPLE. “I don’t think we have seen that before: Someone who met their husband and had her children and then we witnessed the loss. You realize, you have watched every phase of life and now she’s in this new act, where she is pursuing new dreams. Kathie Lee is proof to everybody that it’s not too late.”
source: people.com
