Kathie Lee Gifford Is Currently Working on Projects Outside ‘Today’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Don't worry, Kathie Lee Gifford isn't leaving Today — she's just fitting in other projects as well! She and Hoda Kotb wiped away happy tears as they hosted the fourth hour of the hit talk show in early January. Just three hours earlier, Savannah Guthrie had announced that Hoda would take Matt Lauer's former seat as the permanent co-anchor of the network's morning show. "We are all so proud," Kathie Lee gushed, before being reassured by Hoda, "you and me are together forever — you're stuck with me!"

Hoda's promotion came shortly after Matt's firing for sexual misconduct. "Our sense of joy is tempered by our sense of loss," admitted Kathie Lee, 64. But if she was worried she'd lose Hoda, 53, as co-host, she didn't show it. "Kathie Lee thought NBC would give [Matt's job] to a new face, someone younger, probably a guy," a source told Closer Weekly. "When she heard the news, she was visibly happy. But she is fearful their show will eventually change."

Some changes have been initiated already by Kathie Lee, who'd told NBC last January that she planned to leave Today after 2017 to work on films (she's currently working on a film in Scotland, so she's been absent from the talk show all week). She spent the holidays in Florida "writing a new movie," she had said. And she told Hoda in early January, "I'm not going to be with you much this month," while she works on other projects. "They revolve around her Christian faith and her specific story," a source previously shared.

"You get to a point in your life where you run out of time to do what you want to do," Kathie Lee explained. But since NBC accommodated her schedule, she's decided to stay at Today, and Hoda will continue to be her co-host. "There's no better place in a 50-year career," Kathie Lee has insisted. And Hoda's dream job only increases Kathie Lee's affection for her friend. "She is having the greatest year of her life," Kathie Lee said. "If she's happy, I'm happy for her!"

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