Why was Melvin worried? The father of two admitted of Kotb, “I thought she wanted it all back.”

In response to his concern, Melvin’s co-anchors reassured him that he has nothing to worry about.

Melvin’s co-anchors Carson Daly, Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and Al Roker quickly reassured him that Kotb wasn’t going to come back and take his new job.

“I think somebody needs a hug,” Roker quipped, standing up and embracing Melvin. “You’re good enough, and dog gone it, you’re likable.”

Guthrie, who shares the news desk with Melvin, added, “You’re the one we want. It’s yours now, whether you like it or not.”

“No, I love it,” Melvin said, before jokingly adding, “most days.”

Daly had a bold suggestion, telling Melvin, “You should put it in your next contract that you get to keep all your clothes and that Hoda’s not allowed in the building anymore.”

But Melvin quickly replied, “No, no!”

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Melvin previously told PEOPLE about how he felt stepping into the new role.

Ahead of taking over the role in January, Melvin admitted to PEOPLE that he was nervous yet excited.

“I’m anxious but at the same time, it’s the first time I’ve been this excited about anything outside the day I got married and the birth of my two children,” Melvin previously told PEOPLE. “I am beyond stoked.”

Kotb told PEOPLE of Melvin, “He is the natural perfect person. I told him, ‘There’s nothing to be worried about. You have all the things that you need.’ ”

Kotb has been candid about her decision to leave her longtime role.

Last month, Kotb opened up to PEOPLE about her difficult decision to leave the NBC morning show after 17 years.

“It’s really cool to just realize that there’s so much more to life,” she said. “I wasn’t able to bear witness to my kids’ daily lives because of what I was doing. I got to see Haley sing ‘What a Wonderful World’ at 9:15 a.m. — I would have missed that. I used to think life was the big things, but it really is all the stuff that happens in between.”

Kotb has also been grappling with her daughter Hope’s type 1 diabetes diagnosis, an autoimmune disease that prevents the pancreas from making its own insulin, requiring vigilant blood sugar monitoring and frequent insulin injections.

“It’s kind of constant care for Hope. We’re monitoring her 24/7,” she said, calling her daughter a “trooper” for having had to deal with the unpleasant realities of treatment.

Hoda Kotb Brings Jenna Bush Hager to Tears 1 Minute into Today Show Reunion: ‘I Haven’t Cried in 6 Months’

Kotb reunited with Bush Hager on ‘Today with Jenna & Friends’ on Wednesday, May 28, four months after her exit from the NBC morning show

Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb on ‘Today with Jenna & Friends’ on May 28.

Hoda Kotb had an emotional on-camera reunion with her former co-host Jenna Bush Hager on Wednesday, May 28.

The longtime friends and former co-anchors of Today with Hoda & Jenna shared the sweet moment four months after Kotb, 60, stepped down from her role on the morning show in a move that shocked her NBC family at the time.

Returning to the newly named Today with Jenna & Friends, Kotb shared some updates from her time away from Today and reminisced about old times with Bush Hager, 43.

“Is this weird, you’re in a different seat,” Bush Hager asked Kotb. “I moved over. I can’t remember why, but I did.”

And before the pair’s discussion even truly began, Bush Hager was in tears, admitting, “I knew this was going to happen. I told [my producer] I was going to cry before I even opened my mouth.”

As the pair discussed Kotb’s life since her January departure from the show, Kotb raved about Bush Hager, saying, “Can I just say before we start that Jenna Bush Hager, you have been literally crushing it since Jan. 12 or whenever my last day is. I’ve been watching you every single day. You’ve been incredible. You’ve been crushing it, crushing it, you really have been.”

Bush Hager added that despite their months apart, it felt natural having Kotb back in the co-host seat.

“You come back and it’s like we haven’t even spent the day apart,” she told her friend. “And I miss you, and I’m so happy for you.”

The tears kept flowing for Bush Hager as she continued to receive compliments from her former co-anchor.

“Being next to you right here feels like breathing to me,” Kotb told her. “It always has and it always will, no matter how long I live, this place and this space between us is sacred. I love you.”

Wiping away tears, Bush Hager quipped, “You know I haven’t cried in six months. I thought my heart was crusted over. I’m so glad to know I still have feelings.”

 

Kotb visited Today to discuss her new wellness venture, the Joy 101 app, which she announced in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. 

“It was actually Jenna Bush Hager. She said, ‘Why don’t you try something? Why don’t you try a breathworks class?’” Kotb recalled while speaking with Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin earlier on Today. “And I was like, ‘Girl, I have been breathing a lot longer than you have been alive.’ So I didn’t even get it. She was like, ‘Just try it, just try it.’ And in the middle of this breathing class, I exploded into tears. I literally freaked out, but I also felt clarity and calm and energy. I felt clear.”

She gave Bush Hager the credit during Today with Jenna & Friends, saying, “It is 100% because of you.”

And while she was sad to leave her Today family, Kotb opened up about being excited to devote more of her time to her daughters Haley, 8, and Hope, 6.

“I thought to myself, I wasn’t able to bear witness to my kids’ daily lives,” Kotb told PEOPLE.

Kotb announced in September that she planned to depart her role at Today after nearly two decades.

“As I write this, my heart is all over the map,” the journalist wrote in a letter to staff of the NBC morning show on Sept. 26. “I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one. And you all are the reason why. They say two things can be right at the same time, and I’m feeling that so deeply right now. I love you and it’s time for me to leave the show.”

She officially exited the show on Jan. 10 after a week-long “Hodabration,” honoring her impact on Today.

“My dearest, you are teaching us the most important lesson of all — how to say goodbye with grace,” Bush Hager told Kotb at the time.

Talking about the difficult decision to leave, Kotb told Bush Hager on Wednesday, “A lot of things kind of came to light. And I think it comes when you reach a point in your life where you’re like, ‘Where am I going to fix my gaze? Where is my energy and my love going to flow to in this moment?’”

One of those things was her 6-year-old daughter Hope’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis.

“I just felt like I was too out of reach to help if she needed me,” Kotb explained of her time on Today. “And that was one of many, many reasons that I decided it was time to do something different. And I think, there’s something about knowing that you can mother your kid from right there. I don’t worry now because I see her.”

Kotb opened up for the first time about Hope’s diagnosis with PEOPLE, saying, “It’s kind of constant care for Hope. We’re monitoring her 24/7.”

“She was getting shots — four or five a day — every day for a year. Now she is getting them less frequently because we have some other means to get her what she needs, but there’s a lot to it,” Kotb adds. “Some kids can have sweets, and she can’t. If she’s up in the night, we have to take care of her at night.”

Of Hope, Kotb says, “She is a happy, healthy, rambunctious, amazing kid, and we have to watch her. Diabetes is a part of her but not all of her. I hope it shapes her but never defines her.”

Hoda Kotb Reveals the Surprising Real Reason She Left the ‘Today’ Show”

The host shocked fans when she announced her departure last year.

Hoda Kotb shocked fans and her own staff when she announced her decision to leave the Today show after 17 years last September. At the time, the long-serving host said that while it was a “painful” decision, she knew it was time to devote herself to her family—namely, her two daughters, Hope, 6, and Haley Joy, 8. Now, Kotb has opened up about exactly why she wanted to spend more time with the girls. Part of her decision, she revealed, came down to Hope’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis.

“It’s kind of constant care for Hope. We’re monitoring her 24/7,” explained the former host to People.

She went into more detail about her younger daughter’s needs: “She was getting shots—four or five a day—every day for a year. Now she is getting them less frequently because we have some other means to get her what she needs, but there’s a lot to it, Some kids can have sweets and she can’t. If she’s up in the night, we have to take care of her at night.”

Hope’s diabetes was one of the reasons she began to reconsider her career. “I really wanted to and needed to be here to watch over her,” she explained. “So, whenever she needs anything, and it can happen at night, multiple times, I’m up—I’m up up up.”

However, Kotb clarified that she didn’t leave the show because of Hope. “But I would never, ever want Hope to one day grow up and say, ‘Oh, my mom left her job because [of me].’ It wasn’t that alone. But if you look at it cumulatively, it was a part of that decision.”

Since leaving the Today show, Kotb has been able to feel more involved in both of her daughters’ lives.

“It’s really cool to just realize that there’s so much more to life,” she said. “I wasn’t able to bear witness to my kids’ daily lives because of what I was doing. I got to see Haley sing ‘What a Wonderful World’ at 9:15 a.m.—I would have missed that. I used to think life was the big things, but it really is all the stuff that happens in between.”

As a source previously told People, Kotb didn’t take the decision to leave the show lightly.

“Hoda has put a lot of thought into it,” the insider explained, adding, “She also talked a lot about it with both Savannah [Guthrie] and Jenna [Bush Hager].”

They added, “Ultimately, she made the final decision in the interest of her girls,” they added. “The show is focused on Hoda right now, not on filling the roles just yet.”

Kotb joined the NBC network as a Dateline correspondent in 1998 before joining Today in 2008.