Jenna Bush Hager was moved to tears as she recounted Savannah Guthrie’s emotional return to the “Today” show set on Thursday, amid the ongoing search for her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie.
“Savannah has come back to her home here at 30 Rock,” Hager said to co-host Sheinelle Jones during Thursday’s episode of “Today With Jenna & Sheinelle.”
“We got to see her this morning, and in her perfect way, she talked to all of us, hugged every single person in this room,” Hager continued, her voice breaking with emotion.
Hager also shared that Savannah, 54, “has the intention to return to the show even though it feels like the hardest thing to do” and that “Today” has become “her home and where she feels so loved.”
“She is beyond loved here, and so we’re happy that she is home,” Hager noted.
While Hager, 44, confessed she doesn’t know when Savannah will return to “Today,” it “felt so good to get to hug” her.
Jones — who lost husband Uche Ojeh last year to cancer — agreed. “I’m not smiling, but I’m proud of Savannah, and I’m rooting for Savannah, and I know the strength that it would take to even just come in here and to be amongst all of us,” she said, calling Savannah’s brief return a “step” forward.
“I don’t know what’s ahead of us. We don’t know what’s ahead of us, but all I know is it is a step. And for me, anytime you can take a step, I celebrate that.”
Hager thanked fans for their support of Savannah, and said she “feels” and “depends” on their prayers.
She also recalled Savannah telling her that her pastor had told her, “You know God, God is our last resort,” with Savannah responding, “No, God has always been my first resort.”
“So thank you all for your continued support and your love for all of us, but particularly for Savannah and for Annie and for Cam [Savannah’s siblings] and for their families, because she is, you know, one of the most precious things in our lives.”
An insider told Page Six on Thursday that during her emotional visit, Savannah thanked the show’s crew and cast for “caring about my mom as much as I do” and for their “love, prayers and support” amid Nancy’s stunning disappearance last month.
“I’m still me,” Savannah told staff, per our source. “And I don’t know what version of me that will be, but it will be.”
Nancy, 84, was reported missing on Feb. 1 from her Tucson, Ariz., home after failing to attend church services.
Savannah and her siblings, Annie and Camron, have since taken to social media multiple times with videos pleading for their mother’s return.
Savannah had not returned to “Today” since her mother’s disappearance, which authorities believe was an abduction.
An investigation into the kidnapping is ongoing, with the Guthrie family increasing a potential reward of up to $1 million for “any information that leads to the return of Nancy Guthrie.”
“Please keep praying without ceasing. We still believe. We still believe in a miracle,” Savannah said in a social media video on Feb. 24.
“We still believe that she can come home. … We are blowing on the embers of hope.”
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