Savannah Guthrie to return to 'Today' on April 6 after mother's disappearance

After a two-month absence sparked by her 84-year-old mother’s apparent abduction, Savannah Guthrie will return to NBC's “Today” show next month, saying in an interview that aired Friday “joy will be my protest.”

Hoda Kotb said after her emotional interview with her former co-host aired that Guthrie will return April 6. Guthrie said it’s hard to imagine returning to a place of joy and lightness. While she doesn’t know if she can do it or if she will belong anymore, Guthrie said she wants to try.

“I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back, because it’s my family,” Guthrie said. “I think it’s part of my purpose right now. I want to smile and when I do, it will be real and my joy will be my protest. My joy will be my answer. And being there is joyful and when it’s not, I’ll say so.”

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on Feb. 1. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will. The FBI released surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’s front door in Tucson on the night she vanished. The Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of their mother.

In another part of the interview with Kotb that aired Thursday, Guthrie shared that she and her siblings knew that their mother's disappearance wasn’t a case of a person wandering off, given the pain she was living with and knowing that doors at her home were propped open, blood was found on the front doorstep and a camera had been yanked off. She said they knew something was very wrong and her brother knew immediately that their mother had been kidnapped for ransom.

The longtime “Today” show co-anchor said they don’t know that their mother was taken because of her, but acknowledged that it would make sense and that was “too much to bear.” While she said some of the purported ransom notes were fake, Guthrie said she believed the two that she and her siblings responded to were real. But the circumstances were surreal.

FILE - An ever-growing collection of yellow flowers and notes sit at the home of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, on March 6, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble, File)

FILE - A banner with notes from hundreds of well-wishers for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, is displayed outside of KVOA Newsroom on March 6, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rebecca Noble, File)

FILE - Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

LONDON (AP) — A Russian man was sentenced to four years in prison Friday for assaulting a woman in London in an attack that was witnessed on a video call by U.S. President Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron.

Matvei Rumiantsev, 23, was convicted by a jury on Jan. 28 of assault with bodily harm but was acquitted of rape and choking charges. He was also convicted of perverting the course of justice because he sent the woman a letter from jail asking her to retract her allegations.

In his sentencing remarks at Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London, Justice Joel Bennathan said Rumiantsev was “totally unrepentant” and a “man given to jealousy.”

“Your lack of insight and empathy was apparent at trial,” the judge said. “You continue to try to blame the complainant for everything that has happened.”

In the attack on Jan. 18, 2025, Rumiantsev drunkenly beat up the victim, who is entitled to anonymity under U.K. law, when he became jealous of her friendship with Barron Trump. She had met the president's son, who lives in the U.S., through social media.

During the assault, Rumiantsev answered a FaceTime call from Barron Trump on the woman's phone and turned the camera to show her crying on the floor.

The president's son then called police in the British capital and pleaded for help for the woman, telling the operator during a sometimes strained conversation: “It’s really an emergency … I’m calling from the U.S., uh, I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up.”

Police then went to the address and arrested Rumiantsev, a receptionist who lived in London.

Rumiantsev testified that he was jealous of Trump but that he also felt badly for him because he thought that his girlfriend was leading him on.

During the trial, defense lawyer Sasha Wass said that Trump didn't know the woman had a boyfriend and questioned how much he could have seen in 5 or 7 seconds of video. She said the woman had exploited her ties to Trump to make her boyfriend envious in a “relationship full of dramas.”

Trump, now 19, the only child of Donald and Melania Trump, didn't testify in the case.

The judge praised Trump for contacting police and for helping prevent something worse. He said the victim feared she was about to be killed.

“Mr, Trump properly and responsibly, despite being in the United States, made sure the emergency services here were called, and he told them what he had seen," he said.

FILE - Barron Trump watches as his father, President Donald Trump attends an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event at Capital One Arena, in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)