Savannah Guthrie Opens Up About Turning to God During ‘Difficult’ Divorce: ‘I Felt Like a Failure’

Savannah Guthrie kept it real when she appeared as the very first guest on Hoda Kotb’s new YouTube series Joy Rides.

“What was the most difficult time in your life and what did you learn from it?” Kotb, 61, asked her former Today show co-host while riding in a car together in the debut episode. (Kotb departed Today in 2025; Guthrie still hosts.)

“When I was getting separated and divorced from my first husband,” replied Guthrie, 54. “I was in my 30s. I felt old, but I now see that I was pretty young. And I was sad about it. And I was also starting a new job at a place called NBC and trying really hard to make my way and make my little dream come true, while other dreams were falling apart. It made me really have to dig deep and I felt like a failure.”

Guthrie reportedly met BBC journalist Mark Orchard while they were both covering the Michael Jackson sexual abuse trial in 2005, and they were married in December of that year. They divorced in 2009.

The journalist elaborated to Kotb about how she handled the challenging time, saying, “I think that’s when my faith became even more solidified, because I realized I didn’t have to be perfect to be loved by God. I didn’t even have to be close, because I was definitely a failure. And I really felt loved and carried by God and that was such an important, integral moment of life.”