“TODAY” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie will return to the NBC morning show on April 6, as investigators continue to search for her 84-year-old mother in Arizona.
In her first interview since Nancy Guthrie went missing in February, Savannah Guthrie told Hoda Kotb she believes returning to “TODAY” is “part of my purpose right now” — even if it’s hard to imagine coming back to a workplace “of joy and lightness.”
“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 in the interview about returning to work. “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.”
“I’m not gonna be the same. But maybe it’s like that old poem, ‘More beautiful in the broken places,’” she added.
Tune into “Savannah Speaks: A Dateline Special” at 9 p.m. EST on NBC.
Kotb revealed Guthrie’s return Friday on “TODAY.” Her co-host, Craig Melvin, added that the team “can’t wait to welcome her back with open arms.”
“It’s where she belongs. It’s where we all want her to be,” Melvin said.
A spokesperson for “TODAY” did not have additional comment.
Nancy Guthrie was reported missing Feb. 1 after she did not show up at a friend’s house for virtual church services, authorities said. She was last seen the previous night around 9:45 p.m. after having dinner at her daughter Annie Guthrie’s home.
Authorities have described the case as a possible kidnapping or abduction, but clues have been scarce. The Pima County Sheriff’s Office has not publicly specified a motive.
Guthrie told Kotb that her religious faith is “how I will stay connected to my mom.” She alluded to her mother’s experience with loss after her husband, Charles Guthrie, died at the age of 49 in 1988.
“I saw her belief. I saw her faith. She taught me, she taught all of us,” said Guthrie, who was 16 at the time of her father’s death. “I may not do it as well as her, but I will do it. I will do it for my kids. I will. I will not fall apart. I will not let whoever did this take my children’s mother from them.”
Guthrie repeated her pleas for information about her mother’s possible abduction, saying in part: “We need someone to tell the truth. I have no anger in my heart. I have hope in my heart. I have love. But this family needs peace.”
“We need an answer, and someone has it in their power to help,” she added.
Guthrie also opened up about her visit earlier this month to the New York City set of the “TODAY” show, describing her NBC colleagues as her “greater family.”
“I really wanted to come and see everybody. I just love this beautiful place that we call home, where we get to come and be every day,” she said, adding, “When times are hard, you want to be with your family.”