‘Oh Wow’: Savannah Guthrie Returns to ‘Today’ with Brutal Admission — But One Thing About Her Mom’s Disappearance She Still Can’t Shake
Apr 08, 2026
Savannah Guthrie has reclaimed her “Today” show co-anchor spot over two months after the disappearance of her mother, Nancy Guthrie.
She returned on April 6, wearing a yellow floral dress and a yellow heart pendant — a nod to the yellow flowers and ribbons that fans have placed at Nancy’s
house and worn in remembrance of the 84-year-old. She came with a recent admission about feeling let down by God is casting new light on a deeply personal wound she has never fully moved past.
Nancy Guthrie, mother of ‘Today’ host Savannah Guthrie, is still missing almost three months after she was taken from her home. (Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage)
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Nancy was kidnapped from her Arizona home on Jan. 31 and reported missing by family on Feb. 1. The elderly woman was last seen by her son, Cameron, and his family, whom she’d had dinner with hours before the abduction.
Mounting questions about Nancy’s disappearance, ransom notes, and the masked individuals seen on her Ring home security footage linger. California man Derrick Callella was arrested in February for demanding payment from the Guthries, falsely claiming to have information about their mother.
Police have not arrested a suspect in the open case, and a $1 million reward is being offered for information leading to Nancy’s recovery. Still, Savannah showed up to work to report the news from the post she’s held since 2012.
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“We are so glad you started your week with us, and it is good to be home. … Well, here we go, ready or not, let’s do the news,” she said during the show’s opening.
Savannah was visibly emotional as colleagues expressed support for her and her family, and fans showered her with signs and cheers at Rockefeller Plaza’s Studio 1A in New York.
At home, viewers were divided in their reactions. Two people tweeted, “Brutal. Wtf she has money she has family she should frickin go be with them” and, “Huge mistake! She should have taken a years hiatus!” Supporters commented, “You are incredible and we love you” and, “We missed you.”
Before her return, Savannah spoke with “Today” alum Hoda Kotb about resuming work. “I won’t let sadness win. For her,” said Savannah, recalling how she witnessed her mother provide for her and her two siblings, sister Annie and brother Cameron, when their father died at 49 years old.
A recurring theme in her messages has been faith, faith that she will be reunited with her mother — even if that now only means in death. In an Easter video, the Peabody Award winner admitted, “Standing here today, I have to tell you, there are moments in which that promise seems irretrievably far away. When life itself seems harder than death.”
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She continued, “These moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment … In our tradition, we are taught to take comfort in the fact that our friend Jesus, in his short life, experienced every single emotion that us humans can feel.”
The two-time Emmy winner painfully confessed, “In my own season of trial, I have wondered, I have questioned whether Jesus really ever experienced this particular wound that I feel. … In those darkest moments, I have thought bitterly and perhaps irreverently that I have stumbled upon a feeling that Jesus did not know.”
One reaction states, “She’s right that we can ask questions and have doubts in moments of struggle. But this is… something different. And ugly.” A fan remarked, “Oh wow. Thank you for this message. My prayers are with you.”
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Skeptics still believe Savannah and her siblings played a role in Nancy’s abduction. The journalist admitted to Kotb that she questioned whether her notoriety may have been a contributing factor in the ordeal. The journalist stepped away from work days before she was expected to cover the Winter Olympics in Milan.
‘Oh Wow’: Savannah Guthrie Returns to ‘Today’ with Brutal Admission — But One Thing About Her Mom’s Disappearance She Still Can’t Shake
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