Savannah Guthrie Returns to Today Show While Mother Remains Missing

Savannah Guthrie returned to the fourth hour of the Today show on Monday, sitting alongside her best friend and colleague Jenna Bush Hager, and got emotional while talking about the difficulty of coming back to work while her mother remains missing.

"I can't really even look at you every day without crying," Guthrie told Bush Hager. "You are my best friend and you know it's really hard to come back. I've been trying so hard to hold it together, and I promise I will."

According to reporting by both Deadline and Rolling Stone, Nancy Guthrie, 84, was abducted from her home on January 31. The FBI released photos of a masked assailant approaching her front door in the middle of the night. Police have detained several persons of interest but have not charged anyone. The family offered a $1 million reward for Nancy's return, in addition to a $100,000 reward posted by the FBI. Guthrie stepped away from the Today show in February to be in Arizona with her family and returned to the anchor desk alongside co-anchor Craig Melvin in April.

On Monday, she subbed in for Sheinelle Jones during the fourth hour of the show. She addressed those who might wonder how she is able to do the job at all.

"I know maybe people wonder, like, 'Whoa, 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 said.

Guthrie described the show as a kind of brief relief from the weight of the situation. She said it was not a distraction, exactly, but something to hold onto.

"When I see you in the morning, I know you see me, no matter what is going on, and sometimes that's almost too much because I feel like to do the job I gotta keep it together, pull it together," she told Hager, before adding, "But I'm happy to be back. It's like the two hours of my day — it's not that I'm not thinking about it, because I am, but it's something to do and it brings me a lot of joy to be with everybody. But, no, it's not easy."

She said the grief travels with her everywhere outside the studio. "It's always with me," she said. "I cry every morning on the way to work, and I cry every morning on the way home. And I'm grateful to have good friends and to be able to come to such a beautiful and joyous and supportive place. Like so many people out there, you can hold all of these things together."

She also said her late mother's own voice guides her decision to keep showing up. Guthrie said her mother would have told her to just keep going.

When Hager praised her strength, Guthrie said, "I'm working it out, step by step; it isn't easy."

She ended with a message she said she also shares with her own children. "I try to tell my kids that too. We can hold our sadness and we can hold our joy. And if you don't believe it, just watch me."