Savannah Guthrie Reveals Irish Roots Tied To Mom Nancy Ahead Of 'Today' Show's Ireland Trip In October

NEW YORK — "Today" show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie revealed Thursday that her entire NBC morning show team will travel to Ireland for a series of live broadcasts next month, sharing a personal family connection to the trip that ties directly back to her mother, Nancy Guthrie, whose disappearance from her Arizona home remains under active police investigation.

Guthrie made the announcement alongside her co-hosts on air Sept. 10, revealing that "Today" will broadcast live from Ireland across all four hours of the show beginning Oct. 16.

"This October, all of us representing every hour of Today — we'll bring you the show live from Ireland, the Emerald Isle," Guthrie said during the announcement.

Guthrie went on to explain the personal significance the destination holds for her, tied directly to her mother's family heritage.

"It's funny because I love that we're all going. I've never been to Ireland," Guthrie said. "My mother's family — my mother was Irish. Her grandmother — they were from Galway."

During the segment, Guthrie turned to co-host Carson Daly to ask about his own connection to the country, prompting a lighthearted exchange among the "Today" team.

"You have Irish in you right?" Guthrie asked Daly, who responded, "I'm 99.9 percent Irish. I got the report back, like literally."

The Ireland trip has apparently been a long-held personal aspiration for Guthrie. During the same segment, her co-hosts played a throwback clip from a previous interview Guthrie conducted with actor and Irish native Pierce Brosnan, in which she had expressed her eagerness to visit the country. In that earlier interview, Guthrie told Brosnan, "We were talking about Ireland. I am dying to go to Ireland," to which Brosnan responded, "You'll love it." When Guthrie asked whether Brosnan himself planned to make the trip, he replied, "Yeah anytime," prompting Guthrie to jokingly reflect afterward, "Was I flirting with Pierce or was I trying to go to Ireland?" Co-host Al Roker quipped in response, "Two things can be true."

Guthrie's co-hosts also surprised her during Thursday's announcement with a video message Brosnan had recently recorded after learning the "Today" team would be visiting his home country. In the message, Brosnan said, "You're off to Ireland — well when you go there, say hello to one and all. I love the country."

Thursday's announcement came as the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance continues without resolution more than seven months after she vanished. Nancy Guthrie, 84, is believed to have been abducted from her Tucson, Arizona, home in the early hours of Feb. 1, with investigators determining the approximate timing based on when her pacemaker stopped communicating with her phone. She was reported missing the following day. Authorities have said she likely was targeted before being taken from her residence, and she was last seen being dropped off at home on Jan. 31 by a family member. Investigators have since released multiple notes tied to the case as the search for answers has continued.

Savannah Guthrie has vowed that her family will "never stop looking for answers" about what happened to her mother, a commitment that has remained central to her public statements throughout the ongoing investigation.

Guthrie stepped away from her regular hosting duties on "Today" following her mother's disappearance, with a spokesperson for NBC confirming at the time that she fully intended to return to the show, though no specific timeline was given, given that she remained focused primarily on the search for her mother. Guthrie made a notable visit back to the "Today" studio in New York earlier this year, marking her first time returning to the space since her mother went missing. During that visit, co-host Jenna Bush Hager confirmed Guthrie had come "home" to see her colleagues, describing an emotional reunion inside Studio 1A at Rockefeller Center.

"She said that she has the intention to return to the show, even though it feels like the hardest thing to do," Hager said at the time, growing visibly emotional. "It's also her home and where she feels so loved, and she is beyond loved here. And so we're happy that she is home. I don't know when she's actually returning to the show, but she was here, and that felt so good to get to hug her."

Images from that earlier visit, obtained by TMZ, showed Guthrie being warmly embraced by colleagues, including former co-star Hoda Kotb, who was seen breaking down in tears while greeting her through the rain-streaked windows of the studio.

Guthrie, 54, was born and raised in Arizona and attended the University of Arizona before relocating to New York full time in 2011, when she was named co-host of the "Today" show's fourth hour. She currently lives in a Brooklyn townhouse with her husband, Michael, and their two children. Michael has reportedly been making frequent trips between the couple's Brooklyn home and Arizona in the months since Nancy Guthrie's disappearance, helping support the family's ongoing search efforts while also caring for the couple's children.

With Thursday's announcement confirming the "Today" show's full team will travel to Ireland beginning Oct. 16, the trip appears to offer Guthrie a meaningful, if bittersweet, opportunity to connect with her mother's Irish heritage even as the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance continues without a confirmed resolution. Whether Savannah Guthrie herself will personally join the Ireland broadcast, given her continued focus on the ongoing search for her mother, was not specified during Thursday's announcement, though her participation in the on-air reveal alongside her "Today" colleagues suggests she remains closely involved with the show's planning even amid her extended personal absence from regular hosting duties.