‘I’m not going to be the same’: Savannah Guthrie returning to NBC’s ‘Today’ show as mom remains missing
Nancy Guthrie, Savannah's mother, remains missing after officials believe she was abducted from her Arizona home in January.
Savannah Guthrie is returning to the Today show next month as the search for her missing mother continues.
Hoda Kotb announced Friday morning Guthrie would return to Today on April 6, more than two months after her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing on Feb. 1.
“I won’t let sadness win,” Savannah Guthrie told Kotb in an interview that aired Friday, noting her mother’s strength in the days after her father died. “I saw her world shatter. I saw it. And I saw her get up. And I saw her believe. And I saw her love.”
“I’m not going to be the same,” Savannah Guthrie added. “But maybe it’s like that old poem: ‘More beautiful in the broken places.’”
“It’s almost symbolic, after Easter, after the resurrection,” longtime Today co-host Al Roker said. “As a family, we’ll hold hands and help her.”
Authorities in Tucson, Ariz., where Nancy Guthrie lived, believe the 84-year-old was abducted from her home. She was last seen the night of Jan. 31, when authorities said she joined her daughter Annie Guthrie for dinner.
The FBI released surveillance footage last month that appeared to show a masked man outside Nancy Guthrie’s home the night she went missing. But the footage was just about a minute in length and did not show what happened.
During an interview with Kotb that aired Thursday, Savannah Guthrie said the back doors of her mother’s home were propped open the night she went missing, and both her purse and phone were left behind. Guthrie also expressed regret her role as a prominent TV personality might have contributed to her mom’s disappearance.
“To think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me,” Ms. Guthrie said, dabbing at tears. “I’d just say: ‘I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry.’”
Authorities don’t currently have any suspects or leads, and the Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for any information that helps find or uncover what happened to Nancy Guthrie.
While morning news shows tend to present a cheerier format, it’s not unprecedented for Today to deal with heavier subjects, including those involving its cast.
Last year, former Good Day, Philadelphia co-host and Philly native Sheinelle Jones left the Today show for months after her husband, Uche Ojeh, died in May from an aggressive form of brain cancer.
It was Guthrie who interviewed Jones and welcomed her back to the show in September, where she spoke about attempting to find “beauty in the nightmare.”