Savannah Guthrie will return to anchoring Today on April 6 but warns it may be short-lived comeback because ‘I don’t know if I can do it’ in wake of mom Nancy’s abduction

Savannah Guthrie will return to anchoring the Today Show on April 6, but warns her comeback may be short-lived in wake of her mother Nancy’s abduction.

In a tearful interview with her NBC colleague Hoda Kotb, Savannah shared for the first time that she may give up her career to protect her joy.

‘I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back, because it’s my family. I think it’s part of my purpose right now,’ she told Kotb in the portion of the interview that aired Friday.

‘I want to smile, and when I do, it will be real. 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.’ 

The Today co-host said she views her colleagues as family and needs their support as she navigates the heartbreak and sorrow of losing her mother.

‘I have been so grateful to have this family. I consider this my family, my greater family, and when times are hard, you want to be with your family and I want to be with my family,’ she said.

‘I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore but I would like to try.’

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on February 1. Police believe the 84-year-old was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will from her $1.4 million home in Tucson, Arizona.

The FBI released surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’s front door in Tucson on the night she vanished.

The Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of their mother.

Savannah, in her interview with Kotb, suggested that she could forgive Nancy’s kidnapper if they come forward.

‘We need an answer and someone has it in their power to help,’ she said, before directly addressing her mother’s abductor and potential witnesses.

‘It is never too late and when you do, the warmth of love and forgiveness, that will come, will be greater than can be imagined.

‘I know what it is to be forgiven. And there is no greater joy. And that joy awaits whoever can hear this and find it in their heart to help.’

The Today show co-host further shared how her faith has kept her connected to her mom and helped her survive this horrific nightmare. 

‘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,’ she said.

Savannah said she ‘never doubted’ God despite the pain that her family was enduring. 

‘Faith is how I will stay connected to my mom. God is how I’m holding hands with my mom. And I won’t let sadness win.’

Despite the family’s offer of a $1 million reward for information, there has been little movement in the investigation. 

The Guthrie family last weekend appealed to neighbors in Arizona to search back through their memories for anything they might have seen that could help the investigation.

Savannah doubled down on that appeal in her interview with Kotb. 

‘Our hearts are in agony. We can’t breathe. We can’t live. We can’t go on. We can’t be at peace. We can’t go forward,’ Savannah said.

‘We have to know what happened to her.’

Little information about the investigation has been publicly released by authorities in recent weeks. 

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and FBI said Wednesday that investigators continue to examine leads.

Savannah’s NBC interview offered some new information about the case, including what her family saw the day Nancy vanished. 

The back doors of Nancy’s home were found propped open and her phone and purse were still at the residence when she disappeared, Savannah said in a portion of the interview that aired Thursday.

Then there were the propped doors, blood on the front doorstep and a camera yanked off. 

Given the tremendous pain their mother suffered from, Savannah said she and her siblings instantly knew it wasn’t a case of a person wandering off.

‘So we were saying, “This is not OK”‘ Guthrie said. ‘”Something is very wrong here.”‘

Savannah said her brother Camron was the first person to realize that Nancy’s abduction may have been linked to the TV star’s fame and wealth.

She said: ‘My brother, he was in the military, he saw right away what this was. He said: “I think she’s been kidnapped for ransom.”

‘I said “Do you think, because of me?”

‘He said “Sorry sweetie, yeah, maybe.” But I knew that.’ 

Savannah said that she, Camron and Annie still do not know for sure what triggered Nancy’s abduction – before breaking down into tears as she apologized to her mother. 

‘I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought , “Oh that girl, that lady has money, we could make a quick buck”.’ 

‘Too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me. I just have to say, “I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry”,’ Savannah told Kotb.

‘I’m sorry to my sister and my brother and my kids and my nephew and Tommy and my brother-in-law, just, like, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.’