Savannah Guthrie is a beloved Today Show star and is popular with viewers thanks to her quick wit and positive personality.
The NBC star recently got very honest about what she's like away from the cameras as she opened up to Brooke Shields about her life, and how she ended up "developing a personality" during her childhood years "because I wasn't going to be making it on my looks and athleticism."
The mother-of-two was speaking on Now What? With Brooke Shields, and was asked by the model and actress what she was like as a childhood, to which she revealed her personality - which has not changed since then.
"I think in some ways, probably very similar to how I am now. I was sensitive, very sensitive, I was a people pleaser. I think I was mostly a pretty good girl, not too rebellious," she said.
The star continued: "I wasn't very athletic, that remains true. I was chubby, I had curly hair. I would very often be the last person picked on those sports teams. It was not because people didn't like me, I just wasn't good at sports."
Savannah then went on to tell Brooke: "Sometimes I feel like that's why I kind of developed a personality! Because I wasn't going to be making it on my looks or athleticism let's put it that way."
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Reliving a traumatic memory from her school days - which many people will be able to relate to - Savannah added: "I don't know if they still do that, but everyone would line up and they would have two team captains. It's excruciating. Even your best friend would pick someone else because they want to win. And you don't blame them, but it's so painful."
The star went on to reassure: "But I had a good childhood, I was a happy kid."
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Savannah was the youngest of three children, and was raised in Arizona. Her father tragically passed away when she was just 16 years old, and opened up about how his death impacted her later on in her conversation with Brooke.
“I was 13, still grappling with high school, when my father had his first heart attack. To be honest, I didn't truly understand the gravity of it back then," she shared.
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Three years later, her dad, Charles, passed away, and the grief is still as present as ever. “Grief, to me, feels like a cup of water that I was handed at a young age. Sometimes it pours out in torrents, sometimes just a sprinkle, but it's something I'll carry till my last day. This grief doesn't overshadow my happiness or joy but has become a part of who I am," she said.
Savannah's father was just 49 when he died, and when the Today Show star turned 50 in 2021, she made a poignant tribute to her dad, revealing she was now older than he was when he died.
She wrote in the caption: "Anatomy of a perfect birth day," as she listed each detail of her special day with nothing but love. "I luxuriated in a hot bath and an awesome face mask that turned out to be a hair masque omg why do they make the print so small? #thisis50," she also mentioned. "I was surrounded my dearest. My husband who treats me like a treasure… my darling angel babies… and the three who were there with me at the beginning…on this day 50 years ago today. Mom, Cam, Annie.
"And not far from mind or heart ever ever: my dear daddy, Christmas baby like me. He never turned 50 from 49. But tonight I have!
"So I treasure this gift of life and remember you always. And thank god for a half century of His kindness and grace and blessing," she concluded.
The star named her son after her father, and affectionately calls him Charley. She shares her son, six, and nine-year-old daughter, Vale, with her husband Michael Feldman.
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