Today‘s beloved sports reporter Danika Mason has revealed that she won’t be returning to the show after maternity leave.
The Logie-nominated reporter shared the news on the Today show on Friday morning alongside her co-hosts Sylvia Jeffreys, Jayne Azzopardi and Tom Steinfort.
“I am going on maternity leave as we are probably all aware, but I have had to make the decision of what I am going to do when I come back next year,” Mason, who is engaged to NRL player Liam Knight, explained.
“Obviously juggling all my NRL commitments, the Today show and a new baby as well, something had to give. So I have made the pretty tough decision. So, when I return next year, I won’t be coming back to the show.”
During the announcement, Mason struggled to hold back her tears.
“I have absolutely loved my time with everyone,” the 35-year-old continued.
“We have had the best audience and we have the best team. And it has been an absolute just such a fun two years, and everyone who is in here in the morning, all our floor crew, you guys are just amazing and I’ve had the best time.”
Thankfully, Mason isn’t ruling out the possibility that she might return to Today in the future, but for now, she says she has enough on her plate.
“You never know what can happen in the future, so for now we’re so excited about this next chapter, but something had to give,” she explained.
Speaking to TV WEEK back in August, Mason gushed about how thankful she was for her role with Today.
“I love what I do. I love the fact that I’ve got a mix as well in what I do,” she explained with a grin.
“I think that keeps it’s the spice of life. yeah I love working on the big productions; state of origin grand final, Australian Open – we’ve got the big ones and when you work on those they give you the sort of a real job satisfaction as well. It’s not like I look ahead to what’s next, I’m sort of just enjoying the ride.”
While she was taking each day as it comes, Mason admitted that she didn’t know what would come next for her growing family.
“We haven’t really worked it out. I feel like our due date and obviously everything I feel like you can’t really have a true set of a plan as well… you just don’t know how things are going to go.”
Mason is the latest Today show host announcing their departure from the show. Most recently, weatherman Tim Davies said goodbye after seven years with the show.
Former co-host Sarah Abo left the show in September and Karl Stefanovic left back in June.
In September, Sylvia Jeffreys and Tom Steinfort were confirmed to replace Abo and Stefanovic.
