Savannah Guthrie returns to ‘Today’ for the first time since her mother’s disappearance

NEW YORK (AP) — Savannah Guthrie is coming back to NBC’s “Today” show Monday for the first time in more than two months since her mother’s disappearance, returning to a job she loves but is unsure how she’ll manage.

Guthrie acknowledged that she’s a changed person and that it’s hard to go forward not knowing what happened to Nancy Guthrie, who authorities believe was taken against her will from her Arizona home.

Despite an intense search involving thousands of federal and local officers and volunteers, there has been no sign of the 84-year-old mother of three since she was reported missing Feb. 1.

As part of a video message released by her New York church on Easter Sunday, Guthrie spoke about feeling “moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment.” But she said the resurrection is not fully celebrated “if we do not acknowledge the feelings of loss, pain, and yes, death.”

In announcing her return to NBC’s flagship morning show, Guthrie said she was uncertain whether she’ll feel like she still belongs.

“It’s hard to imagine doing it because it’s such a place of joy and lightness,” she said just over a week ago on “Today” during her first interview since the disappearance. “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, one of morning television’s most recognizable faces, has been a co-anchor on “Today” since 2012. She doesn’t anticipate faking her way through the show, which is normally light-hearted with a mix of serious, breaking news.

There had been a great deal of speculation about whether she would return.

“I want to smile, and when I do it will be real,” she told Hoda Kotb, who came back to “Today” to fill in while Guthrie focused on the search. “Being there is joyful, and when it’s not I’ll say so.”

Nancy Guthrie made occasional appearances on “Today” over the years, once taking part in a cooking demonstration and surprising her daughter on set.

When Savannah Guthrie returned to her hometown of Tucson in 2025 for a segment recorded for the show, the two visited one of their favorite restaurants and talked about their love of Arizona.

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

Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will after finding blood near the doorstep of her home in the foothills outside Tucson. The FBI later released surveillance videos showing a masked man on the porch that night.

Volunteers and search teams scoured the nearby desert terrain filled with cactuses, bushes and boulders in the first weeks after she vanished.

But attention has faded from an investigation that was declared to be a top priority for the FBI and local authorities. Investigators have not released new evidence in weeks and say the number of tips has slowed. The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department both said late last week that they had no updates.

Early on, some media outlets reported receiving ransom messages tied to the case. Guthrie said she and her siblings responded to two that they believed were real and offered to pay.

Guthrie said her celebrity status might be the reason her mother was taken but that possibility was “too much to bear.”