Splits
‘Today’ Host Savannah Guthrie Makes Rare Comment About Her Past Divorce
Every weekday, Savannah Guthrie is at the Today desk, delivering the news as the morning show’s main co-anchor. Now and again, she’ll open up about her personal life.
The 53-year-old is happily married with a family, but she did experience a heartbreaking divorce nearly 20 years ago. In a rare interview, Guthrie discussed her past relationship and how it impacted her journey with motherhood.
“When I was 36, I got divorced,” she told Us Weekly. “I wasn’t married long. That was a huge disappointment. I was pretty sure that I had lost my opportunity [to become a mom] and more or less ruined my life. All I ever really wanted was to fall in love, be a mom and have a family. I don’t know if it’s acceptable to admit these days, but that’s kind of how I was. I wanted to do something important and meaningful, but I really wanted a family.”
Guthrie was married to Mark Orchard from 2005 to 2009. She married Michael Feldman in 2014. The Today co-anchor gave birth to her first child at 42 and her second at 44. She shared her advice for women concerned about having children later in life.
“You just have to trust that things tend to happen at the right time and maybe not on your schedule,” she said. “I could never tell someone, ‘You’ll get to have babies too at 44.’ That was a miracle, and I recognize that. But why not hope? Why not have faith? In Spanish, the word for wait and hope is the same. And I think a lot about how waiting and hoping are kind of the same thing. If you can find it within you to spend that time waiting with joy and expectation — even if you don’t get every single thing you want — you will have spent your time wisely.”
Guthrie is careful about how much she shares about her family on the show. “If I was on [Today with Jenna & Friends], I’d probably be saying all kinds of things about my husband! We don’t do as much talking about our personal lives on our show,” she noted.
Apparently, her husband “doesn’t love” when she discusses his snoring. “Now my kids are old enough that [they could] hear from a friend, ‘Oh, your mom said this about you,’ so I try to be careful — my daughter’s at an age where everything is embarrassing. My mere existence is mortifying,” she admitted.
