Willie Geist Admits He Was a 'Little Emo' Watching Daughter Lucie, 16, Drive Away for the First Time

The Sunday 'Today' host shares his two kids with wife Christina

Willie Geist is getting a little misty-eyed as he shares some of his daughter's major milestones.

On Friday's episode of Today, Geist, 48, shared that his 16-year-old daughter Lucie recently got her driver's license. As he watched her driving for the first time, Geist admitted that he got a little emotional about the passing of time.

"She's a good kid with a driver's license now," the proud dad said. "She just got her driver's license. That's a big moment as many of you parents out there know."

Calling his daughter a "good" and "responsible" driver, Geist noted that he wasn't nervous for Lucie to be on the road "because I know her, and I know how careful she is and conscientious."

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Related: Willie Geist Says He Does a 'Gut Check' with His Kids Before Interviewing Celebrities (Exclusive)

But for Geist, the hardest part of the special moment was watching his daughter drive away for the first time.

"She pulled away. She's driving in front of me and Christina and it was a little emo," he said. "The first thought I had was, I taught her how to ride a bike in Riverside Park in New York, you stand behind her, you hold the seat."

"And you watch her kind of go away on her own," Geist recalled. "And she turns back and goes, 'Oh, Dad's not holding the seat anymore, I did it.' And I had the same feeling."

Geist is dad to daughter Lucie and son George, 14, whom he shares with wife Christina.

Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of his July episode of Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist — where he talked to Matt Damon in the television journalist's 300th original Sunday sit-down interview — Geist said that he loves when he can impress his kid with someone he's chatting with.

"I'm definitely pushing 50 at this point, so when somebody who is on the younger end of celebrities come in, I do a gut check with my kids," Geist told PEOPLE of his two kids.

"They said I had to interview Machine Gun Kelly, which turned out to be one of the best experiences we've had on the show, challenging and fun. And then there was Sydney Sweeney, when I mentioned it, my daughter was like, 'Oh my God, you're going to have Sydney Sweeney on?!'"

Laughing, he added, "I can tell when her enthusiasm is real and when it's just her being nice to me."

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