When Savannah Guthrie and her mother, Nancy Guthrie, recently found themselves in the thoughts and prayers of many in early 2026, longtime followers of the Today co-anchor also began reflecting on earlier chapters of her life.
One of those chapters was her brief marriage to journalist Mark Orchard — a relationship that began quickly and ended just a few years later.
While Guthrie’s career and personal life have remained very much in the public eye, her former husband has largely stepped away from the spotlight, choosing a far more private path.
A brief marriage that ended in divorce
Savannah Guthrie and Mark Orchard met in 2005 and married the same year. Their relationship moved quickly, but the marriage did not last long. By 2009, the couple had officially divorced, and Guthrie has rarely spoken publicly about the reasons behind their separation.
During a recent appearance on the “Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky” podcast, the 53-year-old Today show co-anchor spoke candidly about the painful breakup that followed her first marriage to journalist Mark Orchard. The two were married from 2005 until their divorce in 2009
“It’s the one thing I didn’t want to talk about,” she confessed, stating that she wanted readers to know she had “experienced adversity” but didn’t want to open up “about the depths of that.”
“When I was 36, I got divorced,” she told the outlet. “I wasn’t married long. That was a huge disappointment.” Guthrie explained that the experience left her feeling as though she had lost her chance to build the family she had always wanted.
Guthrie described the end of the marriage as heartbreaking, saying it was “horrible and sad” and that it took years for her to fully recover from the experience. At the same time, she emphasized that she was not interested in assigning blame or revealing private details about what happened.
“All I ever really wanted was to fall in love, be a mom and have a family,” she said in the interview.
Guthrie also revisited the painful chapter during an appearance on Monica Lewinsky’s podcast Reclaiming, where she described the breakup as “horrible and sad,” adding that it took her years to recover.
What Mark Orchard is doing today
Unlike his former wife, Mark Orchard has kept an extremely low public profile in the years since their divorce.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Orchard works as a senior broadcast producer for the investigative program “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.” The profile indicates he began the role in 2016, which would mark roughly a decade in the position by 2026 if the information remains unchanged.
Outside of his professional life, little is known about Orchard’s personal circumstances today. His social media presence is minimal. His account on X, formerly known as Twitter, has not been updated since 2021, when he shared a travel-related time-lapse video. A year earlier, he reposted an interview with Donald Trump about the coronavirus pandemic.
His Instagram account is also restricted, reflecting the same preference for privacy.
There is no publicly available information confirming whether Orchard is currently in a relationship.
Meanwhile, Guthrie eventually moved forward with her personal life. After her divorce from Orchard, she began dating Michael Feldman in 2009. The couple married in 2014 and later welcomed two children together.
