As upbeat as she may seem on TV, Savannah Guthrie knows what it’s like to deal with loss. Alongside her incredible success as the cohost of Today, the television journalist has also had her fair share of hardships throughout the years.
In 1988, when she was 16 years old, Guthrie’s dad died of a heart attack.
“Not far from mind or heart ever, ever: my dear daddy, Christmas baby like me,” the NBC personality reflected while celebrating her 50th birthday in 2021. “He never turned 50 from 49. But tonight I have! So I treasure this gift of life and remember you always.”
Guthrie — who shares daughter Vale and son Charley, named after her father, with husband Michael Feldman — has also been candid about the pregnancy loss she suffered after giving birth to Vale in 2014.
“I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I just tried to tell myself that it would be OK if it didn’t happen: Maybe it’s not meant for me, and that’s OK because I’ve already been blessed so much in my life. I’m not entitled to have a baby too,” the Australia native — Guthrie was born in Melbourne before being raised in Arizona — told Good Housekeeping in March 2022. “Looking back, that mindset was probably a self-defense mechanism.”
After deciding to undergo in-vitro fertilization treatments (IVF) in order to have a second child, Guthrie realized just how much it takes to bring a child into this world.
“Going through what we did, it makes you realize that everything has to go just right to have a healthy baby. I really feel for so many women who are struggling and wishing and wondering, ‘When’s it gonna be my turn?’ I know. And I understand,” she told the magazine.
The attorney — before becoming a journalist, Guthrie graduated with her Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 2002 — has also dealt with numerous bouts of COVID-19 since she first tested positive for the coronavirus in January 2022. She was diagnosed with the virus again in May of that year and was forced to leave the Today show early in February 2023 after testing positive mid-show.
“Savannah left early, she wasn’t feeling great, so she took a COVID test. It came back positive,” fellow anchor Sheinelle Jones told viewers at the time. “So of course as soon as we found out, she rushed home to rest up. So Savannah, we love you, wishing you a speedy recovery.”
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Keep scrolling to see Guthrie’s ups and downs through the years: