Savannah Guthrie tearfully opened up Monday to her friend and co-host Jenna Bush Hager about returning to the “Today” show in the wake of her mother Nancy’s disappearance, admitting, “It’s not easy.”
“It’s really hard to come back. I’ve been trying so hard to hold it together, and I promise I will,” Guthrie told Hager. “When I see you in the morning, I know that you see me no matter what is going on. Sometimes that’s almost too much because I feel like, to do the job, I got to keep it together.”
“I’m happy to be back and it’s the two hours of my day that, it’s not like I’m not thinking about it because I am, but it’s something to do,” Guthrie continued. “It brings me a lot of joy to be with everybody. But no, it’s not easy.”
Her comments prompted Hager to note that she and all of her “Today” show co-hosts feel like a real “family.” Guthrie agreed, revealing that she believes her mother would have wanted her to return to work.
“I don’t think if I had any other kind of job I would have even tried to come back,” the “Today” show host said. “But I just felt like, ‘Well, what else should I do?’ And my mom would have said the same, like, ‘Honey, just keep going,’ and so I am.”
You can watch Guthrie’s full, tearful chat with Hager in the video below.
Guthrie was brought on to co-host the fourth hour of the “Today” show with Hager in place of the latter’s usual co-host of the hour, Sheinelle Jones. Hager and Jones typically helm the daytime program’s fourth hour, titled “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle,” together. Guthrie revealed Monday that Hager has been trying to get her to fill in for Jones during days when the latter has been absent.
“It’s hard when you’re with your best friend to not be real. So I was a little afraid in a way to do this show with you. You’ve asked me before, which is so sweet,” Guthrie explained. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’m ready,’ because I couldn’t look at you in this kind of setting where we just talk about life and not tell the truth about my life.’”
Guthrie went on to tell “Today” show viewers that she continues to feel the absence of her mother even when she is putting on a brave face at work.
“I know maybe people wonder like, ‘Well, what’s going on? How is she able to do that job? Is she not thinking about it? Did she forget?’ No, never. Never,” Guthrie said. “It’s always, always with me. I cry every morning on the way to work and I cry every morning on the way home, and I’m grateful to have good friends and to be able to come to such a beautiful and joyous and supportive place.”
“You can hold all of these things together,” she concluded. “I try to tell my kids that, too. ‘We can hold our sadness and we can hold our joy, and if you don’t believe it, just watch me. I’m gonna show you.’”
Guthrie’s mother Nancy was last scene on the evening of Jan. 31 when she was dropped off at her Tuscon, Ariz. home. She was reported missing the next day on Feb. 1. Local authorities believe she was taken from her home against her will. No one has yet been arrested in relation to her disappearance.
