Hoda Kotb’s departure from TODAY got a boost from a beloved friend.

Kathie Lee Gifford made a surprise appearance on Hoda’s final episode of TODAY with Hoda & Jenna on January 10th.

She initially appeared in a video message from her home in Tennessee under the pretense that she couldn’t make it. Kathie Lee then appeared on stage as Hoda’s jaw dropped to say a proper goodbye.

“I love you so much that I was like, ‘I really hope Kath comes,'” Hoda said. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I have a message for you,” she said before singing “The Best Is Yet to Come.”

Kathie Lee and Hoda hosted TODAY with Kathie Lee & Hoda from 2008 until Kathie Lee in 2019. Kathie Lee recalled how she and Hoda first connected before joining forces for the fourth hour.

“I fell in love with Hoda at lunch,” she said of their first meeting and how they spent so much time at the restaurant that they were kicked out.

Kathie Lee said she only signed up for the show for a year.

“My problem is that I’m falling in love, and I fell in love with Hoda,” she said. “And I said, ‘I don’t want to leave her.’ Every time I was with Hoda, the only thing I had in common with you and Regis (Philbin) – two very, very different people – I look forward to being with you both every day.

“I’ve always said she’s sunshine in a bottle, haven’t I?” she added.

Kathie Lee also said that Hoda demonstrated her skills in other areas during their collaboration.

“You have proven to me that you are a fearless person,” she said. “You are, because she didn’t do what she’s doing now in the beginning. She was a world-renowned journalist, but she didn’t trust her instincts as a performer, and that wouldn’t work for me.”

The performance included a toast.

“I think I want to say goodbye to her with a prayer that she knows means the most to me,” Kathie Lee said before reciting a few prayers.

“May you enter the most joyful, prosperous and meaningful time of your life,” she said.

Since Kathie Lee left, she and Hoda have remained close. Last month, the couple attended a game between the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

When Hoda announced in September that she wanted to leave TODAY, Kathie Lee had an emotional reaction to the decision.

“Bittersweet news that my dear friend @hodakotb is retiring from the Today Show,” Kathie Lee wrote in a post on Adventure!”

When Kathie Lee announced she was leaving TODAY in 2018, Hoda gushed about what it was like working with her.

“I always felt like sitting next to you was like a master class in this broadcasting industry because nobody, nobody, nobody does it like you,” Hoda said. “No one has ever done it and no one ever will. You are all alone. And I think everything is contagious. Your fearlessness is contagious.”

Before Kathie Lee left TODAY, the couple opened up about how much their relationship meant to them.

“(Kathie Lee) jumped into my life in a way I had never experienced before,” Hoda said. “She walked in and I was fascinated by her when we met. I don’t know if there’s ever been such chemistry to connect with someone like that. I had it and it was a feeling I’d never had before – that kind of intensity.”

“I hope she knows how much I love her,” Kathie Lee said of Hoda. “When I love, I love with my whole being, as long as my pulse is there. That’s how I love, and that hurts. This kind of love hurts, but I can’t imagine living a moment of my life without it.”