- - Savannah Guthrie Tried to Embrace Her ‘Sexy Demi Moore’ Voice Before Vocal Surgery But 'Couldn't Ignore It Anymore' (Exclusive)

Alex RossJanuary 28, 2026 at 1:30 AM

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Savannah Guthrie on TODAY on April 3, 2025.

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Savannah Guthrie has a lot to say.

And these days, the broadcast journalist sounds pretty different while opening up about her recent vocal surgery. The Today host, 54, was absent from the morning show for five weeks after sharing in December that she had nodules and a polyp on her vocal chords that required removal and complete vocal rest to recover.

"A voice is very foundational to your soul and your spirit. And I was very discouraged," Guthrie tells PEOPLE of the persistent rasp that plagued her despite previous therapy. "So by the time they said, 'You need surgery and we can fix this,' I was so happy I cried tears of joy."

Savannah Guthrie on Thursday, February 9, 2023

Nathan Congleton/NBC

Guthrie had seen a doctor over the years for her voice, though she admits she never took the problem seriously. At first, she figured it was normal aging and wear and tear.

"My voice definitely has gotten deeper over the years. And it's really just in the last year or two that I felt like it was not just deeper, but it was raspier, scratchier. And I tried to tell myself it was good, like a sexy Demi Moore kind of thing!" she says. "But then by the end, it was really, really noticeable and it wasn't just scratchy. It was cracking in the middle of a sentence, and I couldn't really ignore it anymore."

As doctors puzzled over her voice, Guthrie was told the problem was silent reflux... but then the medicine didn't work. Another doctor suggested the vocal therapy, which she simply found "tedious," she says, and her voice kept getting "worse and worse."

"At first it was just nodules, which I tried to fix," she says. "And when they looked again, I had the polyp, which is like a burst blood vessel on your vocal cords and you have to have surgery. So, at that point there was no choice."

While the polyp ultimately necessitated the surgery anyway, Guthrie had long come around to the idea. She talks for a living, and work had consistently become a challenge in all the wrong ways.

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"In November and December, almost every day I would have to redo segments because I could not get through a sentence, and it was just really hard. It was frustrating and it was embarrassing," she shares. "It was like I wanted to be able to tell people, 'I know this sounds not very good. I know. I hear what you hear.' But then I didn't want to make a big deal of it."

She adds: "The minute I could say it to the world and the minute I knew there was a solution, my spirits lifted so much. I was so happy and so grateful that this is not a big deal."

As for symptoms, Guthrie was never in pain. "I think it was more painful for others to have to listen to me than it was for me to speak," she quips.

She also learned the experience is more common than she'd thought. "There are a lot of people who speak for a living, like teachers I've heard from, who go through this. If you feel like you have this hoarseness, it's worth getting it checked out," she says.

The surgery itself was under an hour.

“We use instruments about the size of an ant’s head to sort of carefully remove the polyp portion, but preserving the tissue surrounding it so it should be able to vibrate,” voice specialist Dr. Peak Woo toldToday.

The hardest part for Guthrie, however, was the vow of complete silence she had to take for eight days in order to make the recovery successful.

"Quiet does not come naturally to me. At first, it was sort of anxiety inducing to have everything be so still and quiet when I'm used to going at a much faster pace," she says. "But once I got the hang of it, I really loved it. It was such a beautiful time of solitude and reflection. I was writing and reading a lot more, and I started to paint a little bit. I don't think I'll have a painting career, but the most beautiful thing about it is just that it's tapping into a different part of your brain."

Savannah Guthrie with daughter Vale and son Charley on March 29, 2024.

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Jenna Bush Hager, Guthrie's Today colleague and close friend, suggested that maybe she'd become a painter like her father, former president George Bush.

"I told Jenna, 'No, I don't have his talent or his patience for it.' But I do understand that once you start painting, it changes not just what you're doing, but how you see the world. And so now when I look around, I'm looking at the sun, I'm looking at shapes, I'm looking at light. And I'm really grateful for that shift in perspective," she says.

Guthrie's children, daughter Vale, 11, and son Charley, 9, are equally as happy for their mom — even if Charley thinks she sounds different without her voice's "scratch." She'll be back to singing with the kids at home in no time, and she's excited to be able to sing in church, too.

And, as long as she's mindful of her voice moving forward, "this should be a reset," she says.

"I think it's about learning to use your voice differently. The funniest thing that the surgeon said to me was, 'This is fine to talk like this, but don't go in a room with a lot of people who are speaking loudly all at the same time.' And I was like, 'Have you seen the Today Show?'" she recalls with a laugh. "That's what we do. But, the prognosis is good, and it's a beautiful gift. I'm excited."

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”