Carson Daly Admits He 'Selfishly' Didn't Want Hoda Kotb to Leave the Today Show: We're All 'Such a Family' (Exclusive)

Carson Daly is not ready for longtime co-worker Hoda Kotb to leave the Today show.

Kotb, 60, previously announced on Sept. 26 that she would leave the Today show after the new year to focus on her family. She confirmed she will remain on NBC in some capacity.

Ahead of Daly’s hosting the Project Healthy Minds Gala on Thursday, Oct. 10, he spoke with PEOPLE and confessed that he’s “sad” about Kotb’s eventual departure. 

“Because selfishly, when she does eventually go, I won't be able to see her every day. That's the first thing,” he tells PEOPLE. He adds that “when you love somebody… it is such a family. It can't be faked.”

He jokes about the nature of the job and having “to go to work every day at that hour of that ungodly hour of the day.” Especially in that scenario, he says, it is more beneficial to “like the people you work with.”

“When you actually love the people you work with, it makes it that much more enjoyable. So that was my first thought," he admits. “Then my second thought was just being so happy for her that she's made a decision that's better for her and her family and her life moving forward. So yeah, she's the best.”

While Daly doesn't have anyone in mind as to who would replace Kotb — "There's quite a lot of time for that," he says of finding a replacement — he says he's more focused on celebrating Kotb's work and impact at Today.

"We're celebrating her and glad she's still in the building,” he says, adding how everyone is “absolutely” just enjoying their time with her.

The pair have worked together since Daly joined the show as a social media correspondent in 2013. He now serves as a co-host/features anchor. Meanwhile, Kotb joined Today's fourth-hour broadcast in September 2007, before subsequently becoming co-anchor with Savannah Guthrie.

Daly isn’t the only Today show co-host who has bittersweet feelings about Kotb’s imminent leave. Al Roker previously told PEOPLE at the Food & Wine Classic in Charleston on Saturday, Sept. 28, that he will miss her day to day, but competely understands Kotb's desire to want to spend more time with her family.

“I'm just so thrilled for her that I can't possibly feel any sadness," he explained. "Look, I'm very fortunate in that I've watched my kids grow up, especially when [my daughter] Courtney was younger. But [Kotb's] got two young daughters. Those moments, those kids grow up, I mean, it's cliché, but because it's true. It's like you blink."

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Kotb, who recently moved to a house in the suburbs with daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 4, wrote a letter to NBC staff on Sept. 26 announcing she would leave the morning talk show. 

That same morning, Kotb addressed viewers on-air as she sat on a couch surrounded by her colleagues Roker, Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones.