Amid her break from the Today show, Savannah Guthrie had a sweet reunion with former coanchor Hoda Kotb.
“My favorite place … next to you ❤️ @savannahguthrie,” Kotb, 61, captioned an Instagram post on Thursday, August 6, showing the duo smiling while spending time together in a backyard.
Kotb was a coanchor on Today with Guthrie, 54, until January 2025. Kotb shocked longtime fans in September 2024 when she announced her plans to leave the show.
“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new. This is the right time for me to move on,” she said at the time, citing her daughters, Haley, now 9, and Hope, now 7, as motivation for the decision.
Kotb clarified she wasn’t leaving the network completely.
“My time at NBC has been the longest professional love affair of my life. But only because you’ve been beside me on this 26-year adventure. Looking back, the math is nuts. Twenty-six years at NBC News — 10 years at Dateline, seven on the 7 o’clock hour, 16 on the 10 o’clock hour,” she continued. “I’m picturing your faces and your families and all the ways you’ve lifted me up and inspired me. That’s my heart singing. So many of my professional relationships have become some of my most cherished friendships.”
Guthrie exclusively told Us in October 2024 that she wasn’t surprised by Kotb’s decision.
“Hoda and I have had this discussion for years and years,” Guthrie shared. “We’re dear friends and we have a lot of similarities. We’re basically in the same phase of life.”
Guthrie understood why Kotb chose to prioritize her family, adding, “We have these little kids that we both feel so lucky that we got to have later in life. It makes a lot of sense to me what she has decided.” (Guthrie and husband Michael Feldman share daughter Vale, 11, and son Charley, 9.)
Since Kotb’s time at Today came to an end, she has returned and hosted episodes during Savannah’s absence due to her mom Nancy Guthrie’s shocking disappearance.
“This whole thing is breaking my heart and I’m happy to be sitting here with you,” Kotb told Craig Melvin, Sheinelle Jones and Carson Daly in February after Nancy was initially reported missing.
Kotb acknowledged that there has been “this helpless feeling” as the public waited for answers.
“We’re all so close with her, we all want to help her,” she added. “I’m looking at us and I was thinking, ‘Who was first in the hospital when [my daughter] Hope was sick? Savannah. Who hopped on a plane when [Carson’s] parents [died]? Savannah. Who was sitting by [Sheinelle’s late husband] Uche [Ojeh]‘s side? How about when your brother passed, [Craig]? She was there.'”
The investigation into Nancy’s disappearance is still active six months later. Savannah returned to Today in April, shortly after sitting down for an interview with Kotb about Nancy’s abduction, but she has since taken another break to film her upcoming Wordle game show on NBC.
