Savannah Guthrie's Father Charles: His Sudden Death Was Major Family Tragedy
With Savannah Guthrie's 84-year-old mom, Nancy Guthrie, missing in Arizona, many people are wondering about her father, Charles Guthrie.
Guthrie's dad died tragically years before her mother disappeared.
According to Page Six, Savannah has two siblings; she is the youngest child of three kids born to Nancy and Charles Guthrie. Nancy Guthrie mysteriously vanished from her home after last being seen by family on the evening of January 31, the Pima County sheriff said in a news conference, adding that authorities believe the home is now a "crime scene." Although the sheriff told CBS News he believes Nancy was abducted, it's not clear why anyone would want to take Savannah's mom.
What Was the Cause of Death for Savannah Guthrie's Father, Charles Guthrie?
How did Charles Guthrie die? His cause of death was tragic.
When Nancy Guthrie was only 46, Charles died of a heart attack, according to Page Six, which added that he was a mining engineer. Savannah was a senior in high school when he died.
She told Brooke Shields in a podcast that Charles had his first heart attack when Savannah was 13. However, she told Shields that the family didn't realize how serious it was, and it was shocking when he died three years later.
(Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
She told Hoda Kotb on her Making Space podcast that her dad was “an amazing, magnetic, joyous, charismatic, incredibly loving, warm, kind, forbearing personality.”
“There’s like an electricity in the air,” Savannah recalled on the Making Space podcast in 2024. “And I can remember my mom coming toward me to try to hug me and tell me really fast, ‘Dad died.’” Savannah and her husband named their son after her father, whose death she described as shocking, saying it tore the "whole world apart.”
Savannah Guthrie Opened Up About Her Dad's Death & the Grief She Suffered
Savannah was very candid about the nature of grief in the Kotb interview. “I always think of grief as like this cup that is like a cup of water that’s full, and you carry it around when something like this happens, and your water cup is full,” she said on the podcast. “When it first happens, you might have tons pouring out and pouring out and then you just carry your cup around for your whole life and you spill it out, sometimes in little drops, and sometimes you just hold it and nothing comes out.”
Savannah added, “By the time you die, that cup will be emptied, but it’s going to be something that you carry with you always.”
She revealed that she still occasionally cries about her dad's death. “Sometimes it feels good if I can have a tear or cry for my father,” Savannah said on the podcast. “I’m glad because it’s an act of love. It’s me saying, ‘I still love you, Daddy.’”
Savannah Guthrie's Parents, Nancy & Charles Guthrie, Raised Their Kids in Australia Before Moving to Arizona
According to Page Six, Charles and Nancy initially raised their kids in Melbourne, Australia. Two years after Savannah was born, they moved to Tucson, Arizona, where Nancy Guthrie was a homemaker.
Savannah shared a throwback photo of her mom on her Instagram page.
Savannah's siblings are named Annie Guthrie and Camron Guthrie, according to Page Six.
In 2020, when her mom turned 78, Savannah wrote on Instagram, "Happy birthday to a mother like no other. My mom Nancy is my heart and my everything and my model for what a mother should be. Thank you, God, for her 78 beautiful years! Happy birthday, mama!!!"