During the first of her two-partTodayinterviewwithHoda Kotb,Savannah Guthrieopened up about how her motherNancy Guthrie's disappearance has taken a toll on her two youngchildren.
"What do they know?" Kotb asked in part of theinterviewthat aired inToday's 8 a.m. ET hour on Thursday, March 26. Savannah — who shares her daughter, Vale, and son, Charley, with her husband,Michael Feldman— replied, "It's so hard with kids because, you know, you want to protect them."
She added, "Vale would write me all the time, [saying,] 'Mama, any leads? You hear anything? Any hope?' And I think that, you know, we try to talk to them and try to give them a little more certainty than we have, to let them grieve."
Nancy was last seen at her home in Tucson, Arizona, on January 31, and wasreported missingthe following day.No suspects have beennamed as the investigation reaches the two-month mark. Savannah has been absent fromTodaysince the search began and remained in Arizona with her family beforereturningto New York earlier this month.
In addition to her own children, Savannah also noted how the case has affected her nephew. "There's just a way in which this is even so much harder onAnnie [Guthrie]and [her husband] Tommy [Cioni] and [their son] because they're there, and they were there every day for my mom," she stated. "They made it possible for her to stay in the house we grew up in, that she loved so much. I think she always stayed in that house because I think she still felt my father there, all our memories."
She continued, "[They] let her have her space, and there's just a way in which this is just even more excruciating for them and all that they've been through."
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In an earlier part of theinterviewthat aired duringToday's 7 a.m. ET hour, Savannah revealed that she and Feldman had returned home from separate weekend activities when they first learned Nancy was missing. While Feldman was enjoying a "boys' trip to go play tennis" she gifted him for Christmas, Savannah took their kids toCarson Daly's house for a "fun night."
Kotb also asked how Savannah reacted toonline speculationthat members of her family were to blame for Nancy's disappearance. (The Guthrie family has beenclearedas suspects.)
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"It's unbearable, and it piles pain upon pain. There are no words. There are no words. I don't understand. I'll never understand," she stated. "And no one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law, and no one protected my mom more than my brother. And we love her, and she is our shining light. She's our matriarch. She's all we have."
More of Savannah and Kotb's conversation will be aired in the Friday, March 27, episode ofToday.
Today, Weekdays, 7a/6c, NBC
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