UPDATE: 1/20/26 at 11:20 a.m. ET — Today’s Savannah Guthrie debuted her new voice following her recent surgery, explaining that she is still on vocal rest but can talk for five to 10 minutes per hour.
“I think the good news is that it worked,” she said during the Tuesday, January 20, broadcast of the morning show. “It’s kind of a slow recovery. You’re allowed to talk and then if you talk too much, which is a real risk for me, you start to feel it. So you have to really take it easy.”
Guthrie shared that she would be making a brief appearance on Today Friday, January 23, before returning to her role on Monday, January 26.
Original story continues below:
Savannah Guthrie is on the mend following vocal cord surgery.
Guthrie, 54, shared a health update via Instagram on Monday, January 5, posting a photo of herself sporting black-frame glasses and holding a whiteboard with the message: “All good! Thanks for prayers and love!”
In an accompanying caption, the Today anchor told her followers, “See you soon!”
Guthrie’s friends and fans posted messages of support in the comments section.
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“Feel better my girlxxxx,” wrote Hoda Kotb, while Sheinelle Jones — who recently succeeded Kotb, 61, as a cohost on the fourth hour of the NBC morning show — dropped four heart emojis.
One fan wrote: “Keep that whiteboard coming!!!!! the hard part is no whispering or talking…. .”
As part of her recovery, the TV journalist must not use her voice for several weeks. She had informed Today’s audience on December 19 that she was taking a temporary break from the show to treat her vocal cords.
“Some of you have noticed that my voice has been very scratchy and started to crack a little bit like Peter Brady, who was going through a change,” Guthrie joked, adding, “Well, I have found out what it is. I have vocal nodules, and now I also have a polyp. It’s not a big, big deal, but I am going to have a surgery real early in the new year and be off for a couple of weeks. So it’s my last day for a little while. So I just want to let everyone know, and if you’ve been wondering, do I have the world’s longest head cold? No, I don’t.”
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At the time, she told Jones, 47, and cohosts Craig Melvin and Al Roker, “You’ll love this, guys. I have to be silent for a couple of weeks, totally silent. Christmas coming early for my family.”
Jones told Guthrie that she underwent vocal-cord surgery five years prior.
“The silver lining is you have permission to be still,” she said. “The house gets quiet. The kids are going to want to help you out.”
Jones then showed Guthrie the whiteboard she used as she recuperated from her operation.
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“I know. I’ll be like, ‘No, you cannot eat candy in your bedroom,’” Guthrie joked of how she would communicate with her daughter Vale, 11, and son Charley, 9, whom she shares with husband Michael Feldman.
Guthrie said she was “really excited about [the procedure]. This has been going on for years, honestly.”
When Jones noted that Guthrie could come out of the surgery with a Celine Dion-caliber singing voice, Guthrie quipped, “It’s really funny. I used to be able to sing, and then I couldn’t sing anymore, and then I couldn’t speak anymore, so who knows?”
Guthrie joined Today’s anchor desk in 2011 and has since had three eye surgeries, including one to repair her retina following an 2019 eye injury and a cataract surgery in 2020.
“Seeing all the colors a little brighter today 🌸,” she wrote in an Instagram update following the latter procedure. “I’m so grateful my surgery was a success! I’m still healing but already noticing a major improvement in my vision. My eyes are filled — with tears of joy!”
