Savannah Guthrie will return to “Today” on Monday, April 6, for the first time in two months due to her mother’s disappearance.
The news was announced late in Guthrie’s “Today” interview with Hoda Kotb, which aired Friday, and brought more tears as the anchor sat down for the first time to discuss the disappearance of his mother, Nancy. She was reported missing on February 1st, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Office announced that her disappearance was presumed to be a kidnapping. The FBI later joined the search, but no suspects have been publicly identified or arrested.
Later in the “Today” interview, Guthrie told Kotb that returning to the show was “hard to imagine” because “this is a place of so much joy and brightness.”
“You can’t come back and try to be a different person, but you can’t not go back because it’s family,” she said. “I think that’s part of my purpose right now. I want to smile, so it’s real. And my joy becomes my protest.”
After the interview aired, the Today team, which included Craig Melvin, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, Jenna Bush Hager and Dylan Dreyer, revealed the news that Guthrie would indeed return on April 6th. “This is where she belongs. This is where we all want her to be,” Melvin said. “We can’t wait to welcome her back here at Studio 1E with open arms.”
In a conversation with Kotb, Guthrie said she considers her “Today” co-anchors to be family, saying, “When times are tough, you want to be with your family.”
“I don’t know if I can do it,” she continued. “I don’t know if I belong anymore, but I want to try. And I’m never going to be the same, but maybe it’s like the old poem: ‘The more broken the place, the more beautiful it is.'”
At the beginning of the interview, which aired Friday, Guthrie vowed that despite the unanswered questions and ongoing cases surrounding her mother’s disappearance, she would “not give in to the grief.”
“I will not crumble. I will not allow whoever did this to take my children’s mother away from them. I will not let them take my joy away from me,” she said.
“But our pain is real. We need help. We need someone to tell us the truth. There is no anger in my heart. There is hope in my heart. There is love in my heart. But this family needs peace,” Guthrie continued. “We need answers, and someone has the power to help. It’s never too late, and the warmth of love and forgiveness that will come will be greater than you can imagine. I know what I deserve to be forgiven, and there is no greater joy than that. And that joy awaits.”
In the first part of the interview, which aired Thursday, Guthrie broke down in tears as she reflected on the possibility that, given her public nature, she was responsible for her mother’s disappearance. The newscaster said the idea was “unbearable.”
“(When I asked my brother) do you think it was my fault? He said, ‘Well, I’m sorry, but it might be.’ But I knew that. I hope it’s not. I mean, I don’t know yet,” Guthrie said. “Honestly, we don’t know anything. So I don’t know if it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that woman has money, she’s going to make some quick money.'” I mean, that makes sense, but we don’t know…that it was my fault that I brought this to her bedside. And all I have to say is, I’m so sorry, Mom. I’m really sorry. I feel sorry for my sister, brother, children, nephew and brother-in-law Tommy. sorry. I’m really sorry if it was me. ”
Guthrie also addressed social media rumors claiming his family had something to do with Nancy’s disappearance. She said such rumors were “unbearable” and “pain upon pain.”
“No one cared for my mother more than my sister and brother-in-law. No one protected her more than my brother. And we love her. She’s our shining light, she’s the matriarch of our family. She’s everything to us,” Guthrie said.
