‘Do you think because of me?’ Savannah Guthrie gives first interview since mother’s disappearance

Savannah Guthrie said she believes her mother may have been abducted for ransom because of her fame, the “Today” show host said in her first interview since her mother’s disappearance nearly two months ago.

Speaking to her NBC colleague and friend Hoda Kotb, Guthrie said her brother first raised the possibility that Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped for ransom.

“I said, ‘What? Why? What?’ It sounds so – how dumb could I be but I just, I didn’t want to believe. I said, ‘Do you think because of me?’” Guthrie said. “He said, ‘I’m sorry sweetie, but yeah maybe.’ But I knew that. I hope not. I mean we still don’t know. Honestly we don’t know anything.

“I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom, and somebody thought, ‘That lady has money, we could make a quick buck.’ I mean that would make sense, but we don’t know, but yeah that’s probably. Which is too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me.

“I just say, I’m so sorry mommy. I’m so sorry. … If it is me, I’m so sorry,” she said.

The interview comes nearly two months after Nancy Guthrie, 84, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, on January 31 in what police believe to be an abduction.

Video from her doorbell camera showed an armed, masked person tampering with the camera at her home that night, and Guthrie’s blood was found on the front porch, according to authorities. Several purported ransom letters demanded millions of dollars in bitcoin for her return, but the family and police did not receive proof of their legitimacy.

The suspect in the video is described as male, about 5-feet-9-inches to 5-feet-10-inches tall and having an average build. His backpack was identified as a black, 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack.

Guthrie and her family have released emotional videos pleading for their mother’s return and asked the public to provide tips on her whereabouts. The family announced a $1 million reward for information leading to her mother’s recovery.

NBC aired a short clip from Guthrie’s interview with Kotb on Wednesday morning.

“Someone needs to do the right thing. We are in agony. We are in agony,” Guthrie said through tears in the clip. “It is unbearable.”

“I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night, and in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought, and I will not hide my face. But she needs to come home now.”

Kotb described the interview as emotional and said Guthrie spoke about the investigation, her faith and how she’s getting through this period.

“There is a desperation and also a steeliness about Savannah,” Kotb said. “She’s hoping that somebody, whoever this person is, will see something and say something.”

Guthrie, 54, is the centerpiece of the “Today” show, one of the most important franchises at NBCUniversal. The network has not yet announced a return date for Guthrie, but a person close to the show said they anticipate Guthrie coming back to Studio 1A sometime in April.

Guthrie and Kotb co-hosted “Today” from 2018 until Kotb’s departure last year.

Officials say the case is still active, with a 20- to 24-person task force dedicated to the investigation. “We’re not giving up,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told KOLD, the CBS affiliate in Tucson, earlier this week.

The Guthrie family maintains close communication with law enforcement, a friend of Savannah’s told CNN.

This is a developing story and will be updated.