Savannah Guthrie to return to ‘Today’ show on April 6 after mother’s disappearance

Savannah Guthrie, who will return on April 6 as co-host of NBC’s “Today” show after a nearly two-month absence sparked by the disappearance of her 84-year-old mother, said in an interview that aired on Friday that “joy will be my protest.”

Guthrie, speaking with colleague Hoda Kotb, said that while it’s hard to imagine returning to a place of joy and lightness, she wants to try, even as she acknowledged she’s not sure she can do it or if she’ll belong anymore.

“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. “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.”

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her Arizona home on Feb. 1. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will. The FBI released surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’s front door in Tucson on the night she vanished. Authorities have not released new evidence publicly in weeks.

The Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of their mother.

Savannah Guthrie, who’s co-hosted NBC’s morning show since 2012, pulled out of covering the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, which began just days after her mother’s disappearance.

Abductions are rare. The vast majority of people who are reported missing are believed to be runaways — not kidnapped or abducted. Throughout all of 2024, the latest year that the National Crime Information Center published data, over 530,000 missing person records were entered. Roughly 95% of the hundreds of thousands of cases filed in 2024 were believed to be runaways and only 1% were listed as abducted.

Savannah Guthrie, acknowledging her mother is among the many missing, donated to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The organization on Thursday highlighted the cases of three children who disappeared in Arizona — Jimmy Hendrickson in 1991, Karen Grajeda in 1996 and Jesse Florez in 2001.

“We encourage everyone to stay alert,” the center said in a statement. “It’s up to the public to keep their eyes open. You never know when the next lead will be the one that brings someone home.”

The Pima County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that tips are still coming in on Nancy Guthrie but at a declining rate. The FBI says it’s no longer revealing the number of tips it receives daily in the investigation. Portions of Kotb’s interview with Savannah Guthrie were released over multiple days this week. In the videos, Guthrie said she and her siblings knew their mother didn’t wander off, given her medical condition, and that doors were propped open at her house. Authorities also discovered blood and a missing camera near the doorstep.

Some media outlets reported receiving ransom notes tied to the case. Guthrie and her siblings responded to two that they believed were real and offered to pay money. Guthrie said her celebrity status might be the reason her mother was taken, but that possibility was “too much to bear.”

She again appealed for information, saying the family can’t be in peace or move forward with healing without knowing what happened to their mother.

“How can someone vanish without a trace?” Guthrie asked. “How? Someone knows something. Even if that something is someone’s been acting strange for the last seven or eight weeks. Even if it’s just that. Somebody knows. And maybe somebody’s afraid and I understand that, but our hearts are in agony.”

___ Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.