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Guthrie has opened up about how profoundly her life has transformed, particularly due to the unresolved mystery surrounding Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance. Authorities suspect she was forcibly taken from her home in Arizona, leaving Guthrie grappling with uncertainty.
“Here we go, ready or not,” Guthrie remarked at the start of Monday’s broadcast of the NBC show (Monday evening AEST).
Despite a massive effort involving thousands of federal and local officers, along with volunteers, there has been no trace of the 84-year-old mother-of-three since her disappearance was reported on February 1.
In a heartfelt video message shared by her New York church on Easter Sunday, Guthrie expressed her struggle with moments of profound disappointment in God, describing feelings of complete abandonment.
However, she emphasized that the true meaning of the resurrection cannot be fully embraced without acknowledging the accompanying emotions of loss, pain, and even death.
In announcing her return to NBC’s flagship morning show, Guthrie said she was uncertain whether she’ll feel like she still belongs.
“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 US morning television’s most recognisable 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 favourite restaurants and talked about their love of Arizona.
The Guthrie family has offered a $US1 million ($1,440,000) 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”.
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