Savannah Guthrie opened up about her divorce for the first time since she split from her first husband, Mark Orchard, in 2009.
The Today star got candid in an interview with Monica Lewinsky on her Reclaiming podcast, sharing that she drew the line at discussing her painful divorce in her latest book, Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere.
Setting boundaries
© Getty"I just had this whole reverie. I don't want to talk about that. For example, I don't want to talk about getting divorced," Savannah explained. "It was horrible and sad and it broke my heart and it took me years to recover. And I'm not blaming anyone, but I don't really want to get into it, you know?"
She was married to the former BBC journalist from 2005 until 2009, and has never delved into the details of their split. "It's the one thing I didn't want to talk about," the 53-year-old said, adding that she had "experienced adversity" but chose not to elaborate on "the depths of that".
She added that it felt "too personal" and "too embarrassing" to divulge details about her marriage to Mark, so in writing her book she "set that boundary because I felt like it needed to be set".
Finding love again
Savannah is now happily married to Michael Feldman, whom she began dating in 2009 and married in 2014. She first met the former political adviser when she crashed his 40th birthday party, attending as a friend's plus one.
Despite 11 years of wedded bliss, she revealed on the podcast that the beginning of their relationship was not all smooth sailing.
"When we were dating — and by the way we dated for five and a half years," she began. "We both had commitment issues for our own reasons. I met him very soon after getting separated and divorced, so I was like, here's what's never going to happen…I can't have a boyfriend. I don't want to. So it took a long, long time."
Popping the question
© NurPhoto via Getty ImagesIt took many years for Michael to pop the question, and Savannah felt forced to give him an ultimatum about their future while on a trip to Turks and Caicos together.
"It got to the point where no one thought we were ever going to get married — including us, especially including me," she revealed on a 2019 episode of Today. "We were kind of at that point in life where it was like, we're either going to have to decide to get married or we're just going to have to love each other but let each other go."
"I was like, 'Sweetie, I love you so much, but if we can't decide, then I think we've decided,'" she recalled.
© InstagramHours later, Michael got down on one knee and popped the question, having planned it out for months unbeknownst to his partner. Thankfully, Savannah said yes, after thinking about it "for about .2 seconds".
They went on to marry in March 2014, welcomed their daughter Vale in August 2014, and welcomed their son Charley in December 2016.
To learn more about Savannah and Michael's kids, see below...
