Savannah Guthrie said she will return to NBC’s “Today” show on April 6 after nearly two months away that began when her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing from their Arizona home. In an interview with Hoda Kotb that aired Friday, Guthrie said she is trying to return to a setting that she described as hard to reconcile with the grief of her family’s situation.
Guthrie told Kotb that it is “hard to imagine returning to a place of joy and lightness,” but she said she wants to try. She acknowledged she is uncertain whether she can “do it” or whether she will “belong anymore” after what her family has been going through.
“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 said. She added that “joy will be my protest,” saying she wants her smile to be real and that “my joy will be my protest” and “my joy will be my answer,” while also telling Kotb that she will speak when it is not possible to keep the mood light.
Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her Arizona home on Feb. 1. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will, and the FBI has released surveillance videos of a masked man outside Guthrie’s front door in Tucson on the night she vanished. Authorities have not released new evidence publicly in weeks, according to the report.
The investigation also includes a family appeal for information. The Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of their mother, and the report said tips are still coming in, though at a declining rate, the Pima County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.
Kotb’s interview aired after portions of Guthrie’s conversation were released over multiple days this week. In those segments, Guthrie said she and her siblings knew their mother did not wander off, citing her medical condition, and she said doors were propped open at the house. The report said authorities discovered blood and a missing camera near the doorstep.
The report also described Guthrie’s broader appeals as the search continues. Guthrie told Kotb that her family cannot be in peace or move forward with healing without knowing what happened, and she asked how someone can “vanish without a trace.” The report said she has also acknowledged that her celebrity status might be connected to why someone took her mother, but she called that possibility “too much to bear.”
As part of that public effort, the report said Guthrie donated to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and that the organization highlighted cases of three children who disappeared in Arizona: Jimmy Hendrickson in 1991, Karen Grajeda in 1996 and Jesse Florez in 2001. The center said in a statement that people should “stay alert” and keep their eyes open because “you never know when the next lead will be the one that brings someone home.”
The report noted that abductions are rare in missing-person cases. It cited national missing-record data showing that most missing people are believed to be runaways rather than abducted, and said that even as the investigation into Nancy Guthrie continues, officials have kept information limited publicly while they look for leads.
Guthrie’s return to “Today” is also occurring as other major commitments shift. The report said Guthrie pulled out of covering the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, which began just days after her mother’s disappearance.