In a bombshell interview with Hoda Kotb Thursday on the Today Show, Savannah Guthrie took us through the nightmare she’s been living for the last 54 days since her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, was kidnapped from her bed in the middle of the night.
Savannah said her mother was abducted in her pajamas, with no shoes, leaving behind everything. After Savannah’s sister called 911 on February 1, the Today Show host said it didn’t take long for the siblings to know something was very wrong.
“My brother, you know, he spent his career in the military and worked in intelligence and is a fighter pilot and is brilliant,” Savannah said. “He saw very clearly right away what this was. Even on the phone when I called him, he knew. And he said I think she’s been kidnapped for ransom.”
It’s a theory the family has held on to throughout the ongoing investigation. Ransom notes flooded news outlets and other avenues following Nancy’s mysterious disappearance. Savannah and her siblings, Annie and Cameron, addressed two notes that specifically demanded payment in Bitcoin.
“I believe the two notes that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real,” Savannah said.
Savannah admits she knows it is a possibility because of her public prominence. She could be the reason her mother was targeted to make a quick buck, but it’s a thought she can barely say out loud. The family remains uncertain of a motive, seven weeks in.
“It’s too much to bear to think I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me,” Savannah told her former co-anchor. “If it is me … I’m so sorry.”
The family was the center of scrutiny early on in the investigation, with rumors swirling that the kidnapping could have been an inside job. Savannah finally addressed those rumors, describing how it affected her already grieving family.
“It piles pain upon pain. There are no words,” Savannah said. “I don’t understand, and I’ll never understand. No one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law. No one protected my mom more than my brother. We love her. She is our shining light, our matriarch, she’s all we have.”
The rumors started to quiet down after the FBI, with the help of Google, released images of an armed, masked man with a backpack on Nancy’s front steps. The images are chilling, but Savannah said she’s thankful the public can see who was at her mom’s door so the focus can be on finding out who it is.
Savannah Guthrie opened up to Hoda Kotb about her reaction to seeing footage of an armed and masked person outside of mom Nancy Guthrie’s home on the night she disappeared. https://t.co/CI7WhyJfw7
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 26, 2026
“I mean, it’s just absolutely terrifying, it’s totally terrifying,” Savannah said of the images. “And I can’t imagine that’s who she saw standing over her bed. I can’t. That’s too much.”
The agony and desperation for answers were painted all over the news anchor’s face. While Savannah acknowledged the tireless work investigators are doing, she is again asking for answers.
“We cannot be at peace without knowing, and someone can do the right thing. It is never too late to do the right thing, and our hearts are focused on that.”
The second part of the two-part interview airs Friday on the Today Show.
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