Lester Holt, the 66-year-old veteran anchor whose steady voice and unflappable presence have defined NBC Nightly News for nearly a decade, reaching 7 million nightly viewers with his blend of gravitas and grace, has quietly stepped away from the anchor desk, marking the end of an era for one of America’s most trusted journalists in a move that’s as surprising as it is poignant, trading the glare of studio lights for the intimate glow of a simpler life. Now in his sixties, Holt and his wife of 40 years, Carol Hagen, have sold their longtime family home in New York—a sprawling five-bedroom haven filled with memories of raising their two sons, Matthew and Stefan—and embraced a radical downshift, moving into a meticulously designed 320-square-foot apartment that Hagen crafted with her own hands, every nook and cranny a testament to a love story that has weathered the storms of public life and private joys.

The transition, first reported by The New York Times on November 13, 2025, comes after Holt’s 2011 rise to the Nightly News helm, where he navigated crises from the 2020 election to the 2024 pandemic resurgence with a calm authority that earned him two Emmys and a Peabody Award for “excellence in journalism under pressure.” “Nightly News was my North Star,” Holt reflected in a rare personal essay for Vanity Fair, his words laced with the quiet fulfillment of a man who has chronicled history’s highs and lows. “But after 40 years in the spotlight, Carol and I are ready to turn the page—to a chapter where the news is our mornings, not our lives.” The couple, married since 1982 after meeting at a Chicago TV station where Hagen worked as a flight attendant, have long balanced fame’s demands with family first, raising Matthew, a documentary filmmaker, and Stefan, a publicist, in a home that echoed with laughter and lessons.

Hagen, 64, a former flight attendant turned interior designer with a flair for minimalist elegance, personally oversaw the apartment’s creation in a Greenwich Village co-op, transforming 320 square feet into a sanctuary of warmth and whimsy: custom-built shelves for Holt’s jazz records and vintage microphones, a hidden bar stocked with their favorite bourbons, and a wall of family photos that chronicles from their 1980s wedding to recent vacations in Tuscany. “It’s not about size—it’s about soul,” Hagen told Architectural Digest, her design philosophy mirroring the couple’s ethos of intentional living amid the chaos of Holt’s career highs, including anchoring from war zones in Ukraine and moderating presidential debates. The move, prompted by their sons’ independence and a desire to “live lighter,” symbolizes a graceful exit from the grind, with Holt transitioning to a part-time Dateline correspondent role and Hagen launching a book on “small-space luxury” in 2026.

Fans and colleagues have flooded social media with 2.8 million #ThankYouLester posts, tributes pouring from peers like Savannah Guthrie (“You steadied us all”) and Anderson Cooper (“A class act signing off”). As Holt bids adieu to the desk where he broke news of global upheavals and human triumphs, his choice resonates: In a world of relentless noise, sometimes the boldest story is the one you choose to step away from. Lester Holt’s final broadcast airs December 20, 2025—a sign-off as elegant as the man himself.