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| A baby shower in 2014 for Savannah Guthrie’s first child. NBC said her second child is due in December.Peter Kramer/NBC |
The “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie said on Tuesday that she was pregnant and, as a result, would not participate in NBC’s coverage of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro because of concerns about the Zika virus.
Ms. Guthrie, 44, said her baby was due in December.
“I’m not going to be able to go to Rio,” she told her co-anchor, Matt Lauer, shortly after she announced that she was pregnant with her second child. “The doctors say we shouldn’t because of the Zika virus. So I’ll miss it. You’re going to have to go to female beach volleyball without me, Matt. Try to carry on!”
Ms. Guthrie said she would “hold down the fort” from New York. “We’re going to be in the height of the campaign season, so we’ll be here,” she said.
NBC and NBC Universal cable stations will broadcast the Olympics from Aug. 5 to Aug. 21.
Brazil has recently had a surge in babies born with microcephaly, a condition in which their heads are abnormally small. Health officials have attributed the surge to Zika, a mosquito-borne virus.
Noah Oppenheim, a senior vice president of NBC News and the executive in charge of “Today,” said Ms. Guthrie approached him "very recently” to inform him she was pregnant and would not attend the Olympics. He described the discussion as “one very happy conversation” and said NBC Universal has a companywide policy that allows for anyone to opt out of the Games without consequence.
He said that “just a handful” of people have opted out thus far.
As far as Ms. Guthrie’s presence in New York to cover the election, Mr. Oppenheim said, “It’s a lucky coincidence we’ll have Savannah here to anchor it for us.”
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