Savannah Guthrie teared up while greeting “Today” fans on her first day back since her mom Nancy’s disappearance.
During Monday’s episode, the Arizona native walked out hand-in-hand with Jenna Bush Hager as the crowds — who were wearing yellow ribbons in support — cheered around them.
“We are back at 8:30 on this beautiful Monday morning, and it’s a special Monday morning for us and for this crowd as well, because we are welcoming back our North Star,” Craig Melvin, who was joined by Carson Daly, Al Roker and Sheinelle Jones, said.
“Come on out here! Come right out!” he added.
Many fans held up signs that read, “Welcome back Savannah,” and even teared up the moment she joined the rest of her co-hosts.
“These signs are so beautiful,” Savannah said while dabbing her tears away with Roker’s handkerchief. “You guys have been so beautiful. I received so many letters, so much kindness, to me and my whole family. We feel it, we feel your prayers, thank you!”
Holding back even more tears, she also showed her gratitude to a fan who was standing nearby wearing a yellow “Welcome home Savannah” sweater.
Earlier in the morning, Savannah took her rightful place at the “Today” show desk, greeting fans as she said, “Good morning, welcome to ‘Today’ on this morning. We are so glad you started the week with us and it is good to be home.”
After Melvin agreed that it was “good to have [her] back,” she added, “Well, ready or not, here we go! Let’s do the news.”
Her long-awaited comeback to the talk show comes two months after her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing from her Arizona home.
It also comes two weeks after her emotional tell-all interview with her former co-host Hoda Kotb where Savannah shared heartbreaking details about Nancy’s disappearance, like how she first learned of the devastating news.
Savannah also unveiled details about the crime scene that were unknown to the public until now.
“The doors were propped open, there was blood on the front doorstep and the Ring camera had been yanked off,” she told Kotb. “So we were saying, ‘This is not OK.’”
She explained that her family initially “thought that [Nancy] must have had some kind of medical episode in the night and that somehow the paramedics had come,” but finding the doors being propped open disrupted that theory.
“We thought maybe they came and there was a stretcher and they took her out the back,” Savannah said. “But her phone was there, her purse was there and all her things.”
Elsewhere in the tearful interview, Savannah heartbreakingly shared that she blames herself for her mom’s disappearance.
The attorney’s brother, Camron Guthrie, was the first to theorize that their mom had been kidnapped for ransom.
“He spent his career in the military and worked in intelligence and is a fighter pilot and is brilliant and he saw very clearly right away what this was,” Savannah explained.
When she asked her brother if the perpetrator could have done this because of her celebrity status, Camron replied, “I’m sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe,” she shared.
Although Savannah couldn’t quite say if she believes her mom is still alive, she did share that she takes comfort in a divine moment with God she had in the early days of the search.
“I heard God speak to me as I said to myself, ‘I can handle anything, God, I can handle anything. I just can’t handle not knowing. We can’t handle not knowing. I have to know,’” Savannah recalled.
“And I heard a voice, and it said, ‘You do know where she is. She’s with Me. She’s with Me,’” she continued. “So whether she’s on this Earth still or whether she’s in Heaven, I know where she is. I know who she’s with, but we need to know.”
Toward the end of the interview, Savannah once again pleaded for her mom’s return.
“Someone needs to do the right thing,” she cried. “We are in agony.”
The 84-year-old was reported missing from her Tucson home on Feb. 1 after failing to attend a virtual church service.
Several people have been detained amid the investigation, but were subsequently released after it was proved they had nothing to do with Nancy’s disappearance.
