‘Broken’ Savannah Guthrie Reveals She Will Return to ‘Today’ Show—2 Months After Mom Nancy Disappeared From Arizona Home

To see our latest updates on the Nancy Guthrie case, please click here.

Savannah Guthrie will return to the "Today" show on April 6, it has been revealed, a little over two months after her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was kidnapped from her Arizona home.

The news was shared live on Friday's broadcast of the morning show by former anchor Hoda Kotb, who has been filling in for Savannah, 54, since Feb. 2, the day after 84-year-old Nancy was first reported missing.

Savannah then opened up about the decision in the third part of a pre-taped interview with Hoda, 61, explaining that she doesn't currently know what her return to "Today" will look like, admitting that she does not know whether it will be something she can handle—only that she knows she has to try.

"It’s hard to imagine doing it because it’s such a place of joy and lightness, and 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. My joy will be my answer. And being there is joyful. And when it’s not, I’ll say so.

"I have been so grateful to have this family. I consider this my family, my greater family, and when times are hard, you want to be with your family. And I want to be with my family.

"I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try. I would like to try."

Anyone with any information about Nancy Guthrie's case should call 1-800-CALL-FBI, 520-351-4900, 88-CRIME, or visit https://tips.fbi.gov/.

The mother of two, who returned to New York, where she lives with her husband, Mike Feldman, and their children, in early March, went on to quote a poem about finding beauty in "the broken places."

"I’m not gonna be the same. But maybe it’s like that old poem, 'More beautiful in the broken places,'" she added.

Savannah's impending return to the show was celebrated by her co-anchor, Craig Melvin, who noted that the team "cannot wait to welcome her back with open arms."

“It’s where she belongs, it’s where we all want her to be,” he said.

Savannah has been absent from the "Today" show since Feb. 2—the day after her mother was reported missing—having flown immediately to Arizona in order to assist in the investigation, alongside her sister, Annie, her brother-in-law, Tomasso Cioni, and her brother, Cameron.

In the weeks since Nancy's abduction, Hoda—who left the show in January 2025—has been filling in for Savannah on air. It's unclear what Savannah's return means for her future on "Today."

The news comes just one day after Savannah broke down in tears while expressing the bitter guilt she feels at knowing her mother's abduction may have come as a result of her TV fame.

Speaking to Hoda in her first on-air interview since her mother's disappearance, Savannah said she believes that Nancy was taken by a person who targeted her because they believe her daughter would have been willing and able to pay a ransom.

"I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that girl— that lady has money. We can … make a quick buck.’ I mean, that would make sense,” Savannah shared. “But we don’t know. Which is too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside. That it’s because of me."

Savannah added that her brother, Cameron, who has a military background, was the first to suggest their mother may have been kidnapped by a person or persons who wanted to hold her for ransom.

"Even on the phone when I called him, he knew," she said. "He said, ‘I think she’s been kidnapped for ransom.’ And I said, ‘What? Well, why? What?’

"It sounds so, like, how dumb could I be? But I just—I didn’t wanna believe. I just said, ‘Do you think because of me?’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe.’ But I knew that."

Breaking down in tears, Savannah issued a heartbreaking apology to her mother for any part her career may have played in her abduction, saying: "I’d just say, ‘I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry.’ I’m sorry to my sister and my brother and my kids and my nephew and Tommy, my brother-in-law.

"If it is me, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry."

Savannah also opened up for the first time about the "chaos" that erupted after her mother was found to be missing from her Tucson-area home, revealing that she first learned about Nancy's disappearance from her sister, Annie, who phoned to share the horrifying news.

“My sister called me. I said, ‘Is everything OK?’ And she said, ‘No.’ She said, ‘Mom’s missing,’” Savannah recalled. “And I said, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘She’s gone.’ And she was in a panic. I was in a panic.’”

At the time, the on-air host was with her husband and their two children, Vale and Charley, at their Brooklyn townhome—but said she immediately began calling local hospitals in Arizona to see if Nancy had been taken in for medical care. 

By that point, Annie had already called 911, with Savannah noting that investigators initially thought her mother had wandered off, a theory that she and her family quickly rejected, explaining that Nancy was living in “tremendous pain” that left her unable to make it to her mailbox every day, let alone walk off into the night. 

“I started calling the hospitals, and the police were there and talking to [Annie] at the same time, and it was just chaos and disbelief,” Savannah said.

“I think we were on the phone with the sheriff and trying to really make clear … from the very early moments, Annie and Tommy were saying, ‘This isn’t that case that you are used to where someone wanders off. She can’t wander off.’

“My mom, she was in tremendous pain. Her back was very bad. On a good day, she could walk down to the mailbox and get the mail, but most days not. So there wasn’t a wander off.”

Savannah confessed that her mother's disappearance was made all the more agonizing for her family, because she was taken from the home where the "Today" host and her siblings had been raised—and where they made some of their most significant memories as a family.

"It’s the house where I came home on a Friday night at 16 and my mom and sister were on the couch praying, and told me that my father had died," she revealed.

"It’s the house where all of our memories are, good and bad. So it’s hallowed ground. It’s really hard to see that violated. And the terror. The terror that she must have felt is unbearable."

Nancy was reported missing by her family on Feb. 1, after she failed to turn up to a friend’s home, where she had been due to watch a livestreamed church service. 

Members of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department began a desperate search for the missing 84-year-old and were soon joined in those efforts by agents from the FBI headquarters in Phoenix. 

However, little progress appears to have been made in the investigation—save for video footage that was recovered from Nancy’s missing doorbell camera, which shows a masked and armed man approaching her home.

The footage is understood to have been taken in the early hours of Feb. 1, shortly before the camera was disconnected, according to a timeline shared by Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. 

What is the full timeline of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance?

Nanos noted during a media briefing on Feb. 5 that, while times are approximate, his team has pieced together several pieces of evidence that indicate Nancy's movements—and the timeline of her apparent abduction.

Nancy was reported missing at around 12 p.m. local time on Feb. 1, around 14 hours after she was dropped off at the property following a family dinner. When she failed to turn up at her usual church gathering on Sunday, her friends alerted her family, who found her home was empty.

SATURDAY, JAN. 31

5:32 p.m. Nancy travels to Annie's house in an Uber for "dinner and playing games with the family."

9:48 p.m. A garage door at Nancy's house opens when she was dropped off at the property by her daughter.

9:50 p.m. The garage door closes, indicating that Nancy was inside the home.

SUNDAY, FEB. 1

1:47 a.m. Nancy's doorbell security camera is disconnected.

2:12 a.m. Movement is detected on a security camera at the home. No footage of this is currently available.

2:28 a.m. Nancy's pacemaker app indicates that the device has been disconnected from her phone.

11:00 a.m. Nancy fails to arrive at the home of a friend, where she had been due to watch a church service livestream.

11:56 a.m. Nancy's family travels to her home to check on her and finds the property empty.

12:03 p.m. The family calls 911 to report Nancy missing.

12:14 p.m. Police officers arrive at Nancy's home.