Savannah Guthrie has set her “Today” return for April 6, she told Hoda Kotb in Part 3 of their sit-down interview on Friday. The update comes nearly two months after her mother Nancy Guthrie’s abduction from her Tucson-area home.
“I can’t not come back, because it’s my family. I think it’s part of my purpose right now,” Savannah said. “I want to smile. And when I do, it will be real … I will have joy. 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. And I have been so grateful to have this family. I consider this my family, my greater family.”
“When times are hard, you want to be with your family. And I want to be with my family,” she continued. “I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try.”
Additionally, NBC has set a “Dateline” special on Nancy’s kidnapping for Friday night.
“I’m not done,” Savannah further shared of wrestling with her faith. “But God doesn’t tell us not to wrestle with him. This isn’t some cheap faith, and my Mom taught me that. God only requires our authentic presence. And that He has. But I never doubted.”
On Thursday, the journalist shed tears with “Today” fill-in Kotb over the possibility that it was her fame and success that led to her mother’s kidnapping in the early morning hours of Feb. 1.
“I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that girl, that lady has money. We can make a quick buck.’ I mean, that would make sense,” Savannah said. “We don’t know, but, yeah, that’s probably… which is too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside. That it’s because of me. And I just say I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry.”
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI are both leading the Arizona investigation. Savannah has offered a $1 million reward in addition to the FBI’s $100,000 reward for information that leads to her recovery.
