Craig Melvin thought Hoda Kotb was being ‘forced out’ of $8M-a-year ‘Today’ gig: ‘No one leaves these jobs on their own’

Craig Melvin is getting candid on Hoda Kotb’s “Today” exit.

The anchor was so surprised his fellow journalist was leaving NBC after nearly 30 years that he asked Kotb if the decision to leave wasn’t hers.

“My dressing room is two over from hers, and she knocks on my door one morning, which was unusual. And she’s like, ‘You have a moment?’” Melvin, 45, recalled in an interview with Parade magazine on Friday. “She came in, and she said, ‘I just wanted to tell you something. I’m leaving.’”

The reporter noted that his “initial reaction was, ‘Are you sick? Is everything OK?’ I was like, ‘Well, no one leaves these jobs on their own.’”

Kotb, 60, informed Melvin she wanted to step away from the show while she was “on top,” but he still wasn’t convinced.

“I was like, ‘Are they forcing you out?’ She’s like, ‘No Craig, I’m OK. I’m leaving,’” he recalled. “I was legit stunned, so much so that after she left, I went back to her dressing room, and I was like, ‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ It takes a certain kind of courage to leave anything when you’re at the height of your game.”