NBC’s “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie will make her return to television on April 6, following a two-month break after her elderly mother’s kidnapping, she announced in an emotional interview that broadcast Friday.
The 52-year-old television host told her former co-anchor Hoda Kotb that she plans to approach her comeback with the mindset that “joy will be my protest” despite the ongoing tragedy affecting her family.
Guthrie acknowledged the challenge of returning to her usual upbeat television persona while dealing with such personal trauma, expressing uncertainty about whether she still belongs in that environment.
“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,” Guthrie explained during the interview. “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. My joy will be my answer. And being there is joyful and when it’s not, I’ll say so.”
Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared from her Tucson home on February 1. Law enforcement officials believe she was forcibly taken from her residence, and the FBI has released surveillance footage showing a masked individual near her front door on the evening she vanished.
The family is offering a $1 million reward for information that leads to Nancy Guthrie’s safe return.
During Thursday’s portion of her interview with Kotb, Guthrie revealed disturbing details about the crime scene that convinced the family this wasn’t a case of an elderly person wandering away. She described finding doors deliberately propped open, blood evidence on the front steps, and security equipment that had been deliberately damaged.
Guthrie said her brother immediately suspected their mother had been targeted for ransom money, and while the family has received multiple ransom demands, she believes only two were legitimate communications from the actual kidnappers.
The veteran news anchor admitted the possibility that her mother was targeted because of her high-profile television career is “too much to bear,” though she said the family doesn’t know for certain if that connection exists.
