But Kotb and Guthrie are more than just likable talking heads. Both
are best-selling authors. Guthrie hit number one with Princesses Wear
Pants, a fairy tale with an empowering dash of feminism. Meanwhile,
Kotb, also a children’s author, has just released, I Really Needed This
Today, a collection of quotes sure to inspire. But some of their appeal
has to be the smoke and mirrors of TV, right? Guthrie hears that Kotb shares the same goal, she excitedly blurts
“Today Show Takes Thailand?” Hey, it could happen.
Nope. It turns out that the two women are exactly the kind of people
you’d want as your closest pals. It’s hard not to want to sit down with
them for a glass of wine to discuss their affection for travel, dedication
to volunteerism, being mothers to young children, love of a splashy
Halloween, and connection to the D.C. area. THEY LOVE D.C.
Luckily, #FlyWashington got to do just that. So grab a sip or two of
chardonnay and read all the reasons we can’t wait to catch up with
them again.
THEY SEE THE WORLD
Guthrie was born in Australia but grew up in Arizona, where she spent
some of her first years in broadcasting (along with Missouri). A job at
WRC-TV brought her to D.C., and she now resides in New York City.
That alone is a lot of pins on a map, but Guthrie says that her favorite
part of living in the Big Apple is the ease of travel.
“I love to go to London,” she says. “When you live out east, it’s actually
a lot easier than you’d expect. You can sleep on the plane, hopefully,
and then wake up and have a whole day, or you could really even do
a long weekend there. So, that’s one of my favorite things about it.”
She says that she and her husband, public relations consultant Michael
Feldman, both experienced travelers, like to do the same thing in Paris,
just enjoying the City of Light for a quick romantic getaway.
Kotb and her financier boyfriend Joel Schiffman, together since 2013,
also find romance abroad. “We’ve gone to the same place every year,
twice a year, for the past I don’t know how many years. It’s kind of
become our place, and it’s a great little getaway,” Kotb says of their
favorite resort on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. “It’s amazing; it’s for the
soul, and it’s become an important part of our lives,” she adds. “But
at the end of the day, if there’s a beach, and there is sand, and there is
sunshine, and there is Joel, I’m good.”
However, all that soul-feeding beach time and fresh seafood wouldn’t
appeal to Kotb if it weren’t for one key consideration of convenience:
a direct flight. “I try not to take two planes, if I have a choice. I like to
directly get somewhere,” she admits.
Guthrie is pragmatic about mixing her globe-hopping with child
rearing, too. As much as she loves being with her children, they usually
stay at home. “Sometimes, we’ll go places, and think it would be so fun
to have the kids here,” she says. “But when they’re so little — two and
five — it’s not fun. Also, they don’t really remember it, so I think we’re
saving our big family trips for when they’re just a little bit older.”
When they do come along, Guthrie says she adheres to “pirate rules,”
meaning restrictions about healthy food and limiting screen time go
out the window “just to survive.”
And it’s not just because Kotb needs her beach time. She says that travel
is important to her because of what it does to her world view. “I think
that’s the funny thing about travel. The more you do it, the smaller the
world gets, because everything just seems so similar,” she says.
However, Kotb says that growing up in the shadow of Washington,
D.C. was just as much of a global education. “I feel like I had this kind
of magical childhood,” she reflects. The Egyptian-American grew up in
Alexandria, Virginia, which she says was just as diverse as the big city.
“We used to call our streets the United Nations, because every single
person on our street was from somewhere different in the world, and
we didn’t even realize it. We just were all together,” she says.
Kotb graduated from the now-defunct Fort Hunt High School, but
says that to this day, her mother says that they’re from D.C. “There’s
something about D.C. that’s just the coolest,” she agrees. “It was just
a cool place to grow up.” She returns often to see her mother, who
lives in Old Town, Alexandria, which Kotb calls “one of the most perfect
places on Earth.” She especially likes to head there on Saturdays for
the farmers market, where she picks up coffee, soaks up the sun, and
watches the ducks on the Potomac River.
“
We used to call our streets the
United Nations, because every
single person on our street was
from somewhere different in the
world, and we didn’t even realize
it. We just were all together.
”
--Kotb
Guthrie came to D.C. later, but says that the city was just as formative
for her. Like Kotb, Guthrie still frequently makes the trip back. She says
that part of the appeal of the restaurant scene is that it’s ever-changing
and can’t really pick a favorite. However, Off the Record Bar at the Hay-
Adams Hotel, and Quill, the bar at The Jefferson are standbys. “I end up
there after work, meeting people,” she says.
Often, it’s meeting her former colleagues and Georgetown classmates
who have stayed in town. Guthrie lived for years in the area between
Dupont and Logan Circle and says she still has a soft spot for the
neighborhood. Her favorite thing to do there? Run.
At the time, Guthrie was a serious runner and still calls D.C. one of
the world’s greatest running cities. “It’s just so special to run over to
Memorial Bridge, or around the monuments, and the Mall. It’s flat; it’s
pretty; it’s interesting,” she shares.
Where are the co-anchors headed next? It might be on a trip together.
They agree that their bucket-list trip would be to Thailand. When
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FLYWASHINGTON.COM 8 WINTER 2019/20