Savannah Guthrie Reveals Chilling Childhood ‘Kidnapping Games’ That Haunt Family History Before Mom’s Mysterious Abduction
Ever wonder what it’s like to be “kidnapped” by your own cousin—on purpose? Well, Savannah Guthrie spills the beans on a quirky childhood ritual straight out of a mystery novel gone delightfully off-script. Picture this: pre-dawn escapades, a rickety station wagon racing under a sky blushing with sunrise hues, and a cleverly staged payphone call to mom announcing, “cousin Terry kidnapped us.” It sounds like the start of a thriller, but nope—it was just a summertime game engineered by cousin Terry herself, designed to add a dash of secretive adventure to a family visit. What strikes me is the blend of innocence and mischief, wrapped in a tender family bond that turns what could be alarming into an annual escapade. Could a grown-up version of this “kidnapping” ever fly today without raising a spectral eyebrow or two? Let’s just say Terry’s station wagon was the original getaway car for a very special kind of sibling hijinks. LEARN MORE
Megyn Kelly revisited audio from Savannah’s 2024 book in which she described a childhood kidnapping game her older cousin designed.
The game featured secrecy, an early morning escape, and a fake call home to tell her mother that “cousin Terry kidnapped me.”
“About once a year in the summertime, cousin Terry orchestrated a kidnapping of my sister and me,” Savannah wrote. “It went down like this. The cousins would visit for a few days at our house in Tucson. And then, on the morning they were due to leave, Terry would wake us up early, shushing us in the pre-dawn darkness as we made our escape.”
“We would all pile into her rickety station wagon and head North, the sky streaking with bright oranges and pinks as the sun rose over the colorless desert landscape. Somewhere between Phoenix and Tucson, Terry would make a pitstop and let Annie and me call home at a payphone. ‘Mom, cousin Terry kidnapped us to take us to her house.’ My mother would feign in shock, protest how terribly she would miss us, then assure us she’d drive up to retrieve us in a few days.”
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