Savannah Guthrie teared up while addressing her return to the “Today” show amid mom Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
“It’s really hard to come back. I’ve been trying so hard to hold it together and I promise I will — this show and this hour especially is about joy,” the journalist said through tears during the fourth hour of the talkshow Monday, which she co-hosted with her colleague and close pal, Jenna Bush Hager.
“But having you and people behind-the-scenes, people in my ear, the producers, our castmates. When I see you in the morning, I know that you see me. No matter what is going on.”
She added, “Sometimes it’s almost too much because I feel like to do the job I got to keep it together, pull it together.”
Savannah, 54, explained that while the “Today” show is her “little respite” where she can focus on something else just for a little, her mom’s kidnapping is still constantly at the forefront of her mind.
“I cry every morning on the way to work and I cry every morning on the way home,” she admitted, noting that if she had “any other kind of job [she] wouldn’t [have] even tried to come back.”
Savannah also shared that she didn’t know if she was emotionally ready to fill in as the co-host for “Today” with Jenna & Sheinelle, two months after her return as an anchor.
“It’s hard when you’re with your best friend to not be real, I was afraid in a way to do this show with you. I couldn’t look at you in this sort of setting where we just talk about life and not tell the truth about my life,” she explained.
“I know maybe people wonder like, ‘What’s going on? How is she able to do that job? Is she not thinking about it, did she forget?’ No, never. Never.”
She continued, “We still need everybody’s prayers and we still wish someone would call and say what they know.”
Savannah noted that she is “grateful” to have “great friends,” and to be able to “come to such a beautiful, joyous and supportive place.”
She also explained how she is able to balance her mix of emotions since returning to the NBC show.
“Like so many people out there, you can hold all of these things together,” she shared. “I try to tell my kids that too. We can hold our sadness, we can hold our joy, and if you don’t believe it just watch me, I’m going to show you.”
As Page Six previously reported, Nancy, 84, was reported missing from her Arizona home on Feb. 1.
The residence was quickly declared a crime scene as investigators said they believed she’d been taken against her will.
The FBI and local authorities launched an ongoing investigation, which yielded DNA evidence and video footage of a masked potential suspect outside Nancy’s home on the night of her disappearance.
Last month, the search for Nancy reached its 100-day mark.
The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for any information relating to Nancy’s case, while Savannah and her family are offering $1 million for information that leads to finding her mother.
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