Savannah Guthrie is set to return to “Today” on Monday, April 6 after a two-month absence due to her mother’s ongoing disappearance.
The news was announced as the second part of Guthrie’s “Today” interview with Hoda Kotb aired on Friday, bringing with it more tears as the anchor sat down for the first time to discuss the disappearance of her mother Nancy. She was reported missing on Feb. 1, with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department calling her disappearance a presumed kidnapping. The FBI later joined in the search, but no suspects have been publicly revealed or arrested.
Guthrie told Kotb during the second part of her “Today” interview that “it’s hard to imagine” coming back to the show because “it’s such a place of joy and lightness.”
“I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back, because it’s my family,” she said. “I think it’s part of my purpose right now. I want to smile. And when I do, it will be real. And my joy will be my protest.”
After the interview aired, the “Today” team — including Craig Melvin, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, Jenna Bush Hager and Dylan Dreyer — revealed the news that Guthrie is in fact returning on April 6. “It is where she belongs. It is where we all want her to be,” Melvin said. “We cannot wait to welcome her back with open arms here in Studio 1E.”
During her conversation with Kotb, Guthrie said she considers her “Today” co-anchors her family and “when times are hard, you want to be with your family.”
“I don’t know if I can do it,” she continued. “I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore. But I would like to try. And I’m not going to be the same, but maybe it’s like that old poem: ‘More beautiful in the broken places.’”
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Earlier in the interview that aired on Friday, Guthrie vowed to “not let sadness win” despite the unanswered questions and ongoing case surrounding her mother’s disappearance.
“I will not fall apart. I will not let whoever did this take my children’s mother from them. I will not let them take my joy,” she said.
“But our anguish is real. We need help. We need someone to tell the truth. I have no anger in my heart. I have hope in my heart, I have love. But this family needs peace,” Guthrie continued. “We need an answer, and someone has it in their power to help. It is never too late, and when you do, the warmth of love and forgiveness that will come will be greater than can be imagined. I know what is to be forgiven, and there is no greater joy. And that joy awaits.”
In the first part of the interview, which aired Thursday, Guthrie broke down in tears as she considered the possibility that her mom’s disappearance was her own fault given her public persona. The news anchor said that idea “is too much to bear.”
“[I asked my brother] do you think it’s because of me? He said, ‘Well, I’m sorry sweetie, but yeah, maybe.’ But I knew that. I hope not. I mean, we still don’t know,” Guthrie said. “Honestly, we don’t know anything. So I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that lady has money, we can make a quick buck.’ I mean, that would make sense, but we don’t know… To think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me. And I just have to say, I’m so sorry, mommy. I am so sorry. I’m sorry to my sister and my brother and my kids and my nephew and Tommy, my brother-in-law. I’m so sorry. If it is me, I’m so sorry.”
Guthrie also confronted the rampant social media rumors claiming her own family members had something to do with Nancy’s disappearance. She called such rumors “unbearable” and said they “pile pain upon pain.”
“No one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law. No one protected my mom more than my brother. And we love her and she is our shining light, she’s our matriarch. She’s all we have,” Guthrie said.
From Variety US