Longtime Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie has revealed her secret years-long battle with a vocal cord issue on Friday morning.
“Some of you have noticed that my voice has been very scratchy and started to crack a little bit,” the 53-year-old journalist said while seated next to co-hosts Al Roker, Craig Melvin, and Sheinelle Jones.
“Well, I have found out what it is. I have vocal nodules and I also have a polyp.”
Guthrie said she will receive surgery for the vocal cord issue in the new year, which will take her off the air for a few weeks as she recovers in “total silence.”
“The jokes write themselves,” she quipped.
“It’s the best time of the year for Michael Feldman!” chimed in Roker. Guthrie married Democratic strategist Michael Feldman in 2013, and the couple has two children, daughter Vale and son Charley.
“It’s not a big, big deal, but I am going to have to have a surgery in the new year and be off for a couple of weeks, so this is my last day for a little while,” said Guthrie.
“This has been going on for years, honestly, so [it’s great] to have a solution,” she added.
A vocal polyp is a benign growth on the vocal cords that can be caused by overuse of one’s voice (Guthrie began hosting Today in 2012 and has worked in broadcast journalism since 1993). It’s a non-serious condition and has an excellent recovery prognosis.
Co-anchor Sheinelle Jones, a TV anchor since 2000 and part-time host of Today since 2014, discussed getting the same surgery herself. The 47-year-old anchor assured Guthrie it was “in and out, no big deal.” She also gifted Guthrie the same whiteboard she used to communicate while she was on vocal rest. Jones underwent the surgery in 2020 and was off the air for six weeks.
Guthrie opened her announcement by playing a classic Brady Bunch clip in which the Brady brood sing “Time to Change,” highlighted by Peter Brady’s voice cracking as he’s going through puberty.
“I decided to show you that classic clip because I love it, number one,” she said. “Number two, I felt like Peter Brady these last few weeks.”
This is not the first time Guthrie has dealt with serious health issues during her time on Today. Between 2019 and 2021, she had three surgeries on one of her eyes due to a torn retina, which caused her to lose vision. Her 2019 surgery restored vision to the eye.
NBC has not offered a timeline for when Guthrie will return to the air, nor has it said who will replace her in the interim. The Daily Beast has contacted the network for comment.
