Savannah Guthrie Recalls Humble Beginnings Before ‘Today’ Fame: ‘Ditching Class and Smoking Cigarettes’

Savannah Guthrie has been a bright light on the small screen as a broadcast TV host, especially amid her current 11-year run on the Today show. Although the journalist has reached heightened success, she has admitted that her humble beginnings helped make her the person she is now.

While chatting with People, Savannah, 53, shared that nobody was raving over her “natural talent” as an aspiring TV host.

“No one. And by the way, certainly not in high school when I was ditching class and smoking cigarettes at Denny’s and barely got into college and almost didn’t pass the SAT,” the reporter told the outlet in a story published on Tuesday, February 25. “Not then, and not even when I started in local news and had my first job and my hair was terrible, my voice was insane, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was there! I know how unlikely this is. If I had seen me, if anyone had seen me, it would be the last person you would ever say, ‘Boy, that one’s got potential.’ It’s the truth!”

That said, Savannah has leaned in on her faith over the years, which led to her publishing the children’s book Mostly What God Does is Love You.

On February 25, Savannah was interviewed by 10-year-old daughter Vale, whom she shares with husband Mike Feldman, on the Today show. The couple also share a son, Charley, 8.

Vale asked her mother about her faith and how it’s guided her over the years and the moment led Vale’s godmother and fellow Today host, Jenna Bush Hager, to get choked up.

“I’m so lucky to be her godmother,” Jenna, 43, said before she started crying alongside Savannah.

Jenna continued, “But I’m so proud of her because you know everything you’ve given to them, all of your faith that you’ve passed on so gently without preaching, without demanding, are in those little kids. And when the world feels dark, that is hope. Anyway, you can see it.”

While Savannah’s career has brought her beautiful moments that she has been able to experience solo and with her family, she has also learned tough mistakes along the way. On February 6, Savannah chatted with Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show, Radio Andy, and revealed her most embarrassing interview that took place during her rookie year on the Today show.

“Khloé [Kardashian] was on, and there had been these stories circulating in the press that her father, Robert Kardashian, wasn’t really her father,” Savannah explained to the Bravo king, 56.

She continued to explain that the Today producers at the time really wanted her to ask the Kardashians star about the topic, but she was “very embarrassed to ask such a question.” However, she snuck the question in before the interview went off air.

“I said, ‘Khloé, and just real quickly, in the seconds we have, there’ve been some stories that Robert Kardashian is not your father. Is he?’” Savannah recalled. “I don’t know if she’s such a pro that she saw them counting down like ‘three, two …’ And she said, ‘Yep, I know. Nothing to it.’ And I was like, ‘And we’ll be right back.’”