For nearly two decades, Savannah Guthrie has been the smiling, steady presence millions of Americans wake up to each morning on NBC’s Today show—a beacon of poise, intelligence, and warmth in a world that so often feels anything but. Her interviews are typically masterclasses in grace under pressure, her questions pointed yet never cruel, her laughter easy and infectious. But even the best in the business have moments that haunt them, that pop up in the quiet hours and make them cringe with the memory of what might have been said—or, in this case, what had to be asked.
This week, in a surprisingly candid and refreshingly human moment, Savannah Guthrie peeled back the curtain on one of the most awkward episodes of her storied career, admitting to Andy Cohen on his Sirius XFM radio show that there is one on-air moment she still can’t quite live down. And, as she tells it, it all comes down to one infamous question, a swirl of tabloid rumor, and a Kardashian sister who handled it with more class than most people might have.
The year was 2011. America was in the full throes of Kardashian mania. Kim’s wedding was still headline news, Kris Jenner was rewriting the rules of reality TV, and Khloé—then fresh off her own wedding to NBA star Lamar Odom—was making the rounds to promote her new E! series, Khloé and Lamar. The world was obsessed with the Kardashian clan’s every move, and the rumor mill was in overdrive, churning out endless speculation about their relationships, their fortunes, and, in Khloé’s case, her paternity.
Savannah Guthrie, then a relatively new face on the Today show, was tasked with interviewing Khloé Kardashian as part of the promotional blitz for her latest reality TV venture. For most anchors, landing a Kardashian interview would be a career highlight, a chance to bask in the glow of pop culture royalty. But for Savannah, the assignment came with a catch—a question so loaded, so personal, and so undeniably awkward that even now, more than a decade later, she still winces at the memory.
“I have a really embarrassing one,” Savannah confessed to Andy Cohen, her voice half-laughing, half-groaning at the recollection. “So Khloé Kardashian was on, this was really early on [my time on the Today show], I think.” Andy, ever the pop culture aficionado, jumped in: “She’s my favorite Kardashian.” Savannah agreed, “She’s a doll,” before diving into the story that would become a cautionary tale for every young journalist handed a cue card with a question they’d rather not ask.
At the time, rumors had been swirling for months—years, even—that Khloé Kardashian was not the biological daughter of the late Robert Kardashian, the high-profile attorney who famously defended O.J. Simpson during the “trial of the century.” The gossip pages, fueled by whispers and innuendo, suggested that Khloé’s real father might be none other than O.J. Simpson himself, a claim that was as salacious as it was unsubstantiated. It was the sort of tabloid fodder that sells magazines and drives clicks, but for the people at the center of it—Khloé, her mother Kris Jenner, her late father Robert, and even O.J. Simpson—it was a deeply personal, deeply painful rumor that refused to die.
Still, producers at the Today show were adamant. They wanted Savannah to ask the question. “I know the producers at the time, none of whom are here today, really wanted me to ask and I was very embarrassed to ask such a question,” Savannah admitted. She was new, eager to please, and—by her own admission—“naive.” So she did what any green anchor would do: she waited until the very last possible moment, hoping against hope that the clock would save her from having to utter the words.
“At the Today show, we have a thing called the ‘hard out’—and the ‘hard out’ means you have to be done. The show is going to black at such and such time,” Savannah explained. So, with the seconds ticking down, she finally blurted out the dreaded question: “I said Khloé, just real quickly, in the seconds we have, there have been some stories that Robert Kardashian is not your father. Is he?”
There it was—the question that had haunted Khloé for years, the question that had been asked a thousand times in a thousand different ways, now coming from the lips of America’s morning sweetheart. For a split second, Savannah braced herself for a storm—for anger, for tears, for a walk-off that would become viral fodder for years to come.
But Khloé Kardashian, to her eternal credit, handled it with the kind of grace and humor that has made her one of the most beloved members of her famous family. “Yep, I know. Nothing to it,” she replied, saving Savannah from a potentially career-defining disaster. As Savannah recalled to Andy Cohen, “Khloé saved my b–t.”
It was a masterclass in how to handle the unhandleable, a reminder that sometimes the people we expect to be the most guarded are the ones who surprise us with their generosity and poise. For Savannah, the relief was palpable. For Khloé, it was just another day in the life of a Kardashian—a life lived under the microscope, where every rumor, every whisper, every wild accusation is dissected and discussed by millions.
The rumor itself was, of course, complete nonsense. O.J. Simpson, who passed away in 2024, denied it repeatedly over the years. In 2022, during a rare podcast appearance, he addressed the speculation head-on: “The rumor ain’t true. It’s not even anywhere close to being true.” Khloé, for her part, has always brushed off the gossip with a mix of humor and exasperation. When the rumors resurfaced in 2017, she took to Twitter—now X—to shut them down: “People are a-holes but I don’t care lol I focus on the good.”
But the damage, as is so often the case with tabloid rumors, was already done. For Khloé, the question of her paternity became a recurring theme in her public life, a shadow that followed her from red carpets to reality TV confessionals. For Savannah, it became a lesson in the perils of live television, in the fine line between journalism and intrusion, in the importance of empathy when asking questions that cut close to the bone.
Over the years, Savannah Guthrie has interviewed presidents and prime ministers, movie stars and moguls, survivors and heroes. She has covered wars and weddings, scandals and celebrations. She has been praised for her toughness, her fairness, her ability to ask the hard questions without losing her humanity. But it is this moment—this awkward, cringeworthy, deeply human moment—that lingers in her memory.
Perhaps it’s because it was her first brush with the darker side of celebrity culture, with the way rumors can take on a life of their own, with the way even the most innocuous interview can become a minefield. Or perhaps it’s because, in that moment, she saw herself not as a journalist, but as a person—one who understood, on some level, that there are questions that should never have to be asked, no matter how badly the producers want a headline.
For viewers, the moment was a blip—a few seconds of awkwardness at the end of a segment, quickly forgotten amid the endless churn of morning television. But for Savannah, it was a turning point, a moment of growth, a reminder that even the best in the business are still learning, still stumbling, still figuring it out as they go.
In the years since, both women have gone on to greater heights. Khloé Kardashian has built an empire, weathered heartbreak and scandal, and emerged as a fan favorite for her candor and resilience. Savannah Guthrie has become the face of the Today show, a trusted voice in American journalism, a role model for young women everywhere. The moment that once made her cringe is now just another story to tell—a funny, humbling, utterly human reminder that we are all, in the end, just doing our best.
And maybe that’s why the story resonates. In a world obsessed with perfection, with carefully curated images and meticulously managed brands, there is something deeply comforting about the idea that even Savannah Guthrie—poised, polished, unflappable Savannah Guthrie—has moments that make her want to crawl under the desk and hide. That even Khloé Kardashian, reality TV royalty, has to answer questions she’d rather never hear again. That we are all, in our own ways, just trying to get through the day with our dignity intact.
As Savannah herself put it, “Khloé saved my b–t.” Sometimes, that’s all any of us can hope for—that when the awkward moments come, when the questions get too personal, when the world is watching and waiting for us to slip, someone will be there to save us, to laugh it off, to remind us that it’s all just part of the show.
So here’s to Savannah Guthrie, for sharing the story, for owning the cringe, for reminding us that even the pros have their off days. And here’s to Khloé Kardashian, for handling it all with grace, for shrugging off the rumors, for showing us that sometimes the best answer is the simplest one: “Yep, I know. Nothing to it.”
In the end, that’s what makes live television so irresistible—the unpredictability, the humanity, the moments that go off script and remind us that, behind the makeup and the lights and the carefully crafted questions, we are all just people, trying to make it through the day with a little bit of humor and a lot of heart. And if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll have a story or two to tell along the way.
