Natalie Morales Will Head to CBS' The Talk After Exiting NBC: Source

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Natalie Morales is heading over to CBS' The Talk after more than two decades with NBC, a source confirms to PEOPLE.

The anchor and correspondent, 49, announced to staff on Friday that she is leaving the network for "a new adventure."

Morales will be the latest addition to The Talk, joining fellow hosts Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Jerry O'Connell and Sheryl Underwood. The Daily Mail was the first to report the news that Morales will join the show.

In March, CBS announced the departure of former The Talk host Sharon Osbourne, and in August Elaine Welteroth revealed that she was leaving the daytime series after one season.

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Morales, who is expected to continue appearing on Dateline's 30th season through the end of this year, wrote in an email to NBC staffers on Friday, "How do you begin to say thank you for 22 amazing years?"

"I think back to my early days cutting my teeth at WVIT in Hartford, CT then taking the huge and — at the time — petrifying leap to MSNBC and alas— scoring the golden tickets to the Today Show and Dateline. Never in a million years did I imagine this when I dreamed of what I wanted to be when I grew up!"

She continued, "This first half of my life has been one full of adventure, challenges, travel, way too many early wake up calls, and yes opportunities to witness history unfold and to tell inspiring and impactful stories that will always be in my mind's highlight reel."

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"Speaking of that reel: I watched my family grow up along with so many of your own children, and as my oldest son gets ready to spread his wings and head to college soon, so too do I feel the time is right, (before the second half of my life) to spread my own wings and to pursue a new adventure," Morales added.

Morales first joined NBC in the 1990s as an anchor and reporter for Hartford's NBC affiliate WVIT-TV. In 2002, she joined MSNBC as an anchor and correspondent.

She became a national correspondent for TODAY in 2006 and has stayed with the program ever since. In 2011, she took over for Ann Curry as the show's news anchor. More recently, Morales began anchoring for the west coast edition of TODAY in 2016. And last year, she joined Dateline as an official correspondent.

RELATED: Jerry O'Connell Admits He Was 'a Little' Concerned Joining The Talk After Sharon Osbourne Drama

Earlier this year, Osbourne, 68, departed The Talk amid controversy surrounding remarks she made on air during a conversation pertaining to Piers Morgan.

"Sharon Osbourne has decided to leave The Talk," a statement from CBS announced at the time, going on to say that her "behavior toward her co-hosts during the March 10 episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace."

Welteroth, 34, was the latest co-host to exit the show, saying that she would "share my upcoming creative projects soon." Two days after announcing her departure, The Talk announced that Gbajabiamila would join the daytime talk show.