Savannah Guthrie reflects on her upcoming return to the Today show

Savannah Guthrie is wracked with worry over her return to the Today show.

The broadcaster, 54, stepped away from the NBC programme earlier this year after her mother Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in Arizona but Savannah has now confirmed she's going to be returning to work after the Easter break with her TV comeback scheduled for April 6 - but the longtime host fears she "not going to be the same" since tragedy struck her family two months ago.

In an interview with Today's Hoda Kotb, Savannah explained: "It’s hard to imagine doing it [being back at work] because it’s such a place of joy and lightness, and I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back, because it’s my family. I think it’s part of my purpose right now.

"I want to smile. And when I do, it will be real. I will have joy. And my joy will be my protest. My joy will be my answer. And being there is joyful. And when it’s not, I’ll say so. And I have been so grateful to have this family. I consider this my family, my greater family."

She added: "When times are hard, you want to be with your family. And I want to be with my family. And so I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try. I would like to try.

"I’m not going to be the same. But maybe it’s like that old poem: ‘More beautiful in the broken places'."