Katie Couric on Facebook
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Nearly two decades ago, Katie Couric joined The Today Show, and became America’s Morning Show sweetheart. After a few bumps, and winding roads in her life, today Couric is the host of her very own daytime talk show, Katie, and is happier and busier than ever. As More’s February cover girl, Couric shares how she found light at the end of the tunnel. The issue hits newsstands on Tuesday, January 22nd.
On being surprised that she isn’t remarried: “It’s actually surprising to me that it has been almost 15 years and I haven’t remarried. I think life is more fun when you have someone in your life. And I always wanted a father figure for my daughters, but it hasn’t worked out that way. I’ve had long-term relationships, but they haven’t turned into life-long partners.”
On thinking she’d turn out like Florence Henderson on The Brady Bunch:“I really did love my husband a lot, but after Jay died, I always thought I’d end up like Florence Henderson on The Brady Brunch,” Couric says, meaning she dreamed of uniting her family with a man’s.
On being compared to Samantha on ‘Sex and the City’ by her daughter: Her younger daughter {Carrie} tried to console her after having a huge decline in her likeability rating while at CBS Evening News. “Mom, you know what Samantha on Sex and the City says?” Carrie asked. “If I listened to what every bitch in New York City says about me, I’d never leave the house.’” Couric remembers laughing and telling Carrie, “There is so much wrong with that.”
On experiencing failure at CBS Evening News: Couric referred to the experience as, “an affront to my whole sort of mien.”
On her decision to wear her wedding ring around her neck, after her husband, Jay Monahan passed away from colon cancer: “I needed to have a piece of my husband with me,” she says. “I wasn’t doing it for sympathy. Or maybe I did. I was just trying to make it through, and it was hard to be on television again and interview [Secretary of State] Jim Baker or go to the weather with Al Roker.”
On revealing her struggle with bulimia on Katie: “I [was] asking people to reveal their innermost feelings about [this issue], and I actually know about it. I have had this issue; my sister Emily who passed away, had this issue. So I thought, ‘this is the time.’ I tried to do it in a way that wasn’t, ‘I had bulimia!’ But just ‘I had bulimia, and I know this mind game that goes on where if you don’t adhere to this strict calorie restriction, it makes you feel really bad about yourself, and this vicious cycle kicks in.”
On why she thinks her bulimia story was picked up by gossip outlets: “I had no idea it would be a big bulletin,” Couric says. “But I think it got traction because in a way people see me as somebody who has their shit together.”
On the backlash from her highly publicized Hurricane Sandy Tweets: Which read, “Now watching Diners Drivers and Dives. Good times.” The tweet resulted in nasty tweets back: She says people tweeted back, “You insensitive bitch. People are suffering.” “I shouldn’t have sent that,” Couric says, “but I was just communicating as someone who was holed up. I later apologized because I actually think I am a very empathetic, caring person.
On Being Compared to a Kennedy and Feeling Alone: “I remember someone saying, ‘You’re like the Kennedys,’”Couric felt like an alien after her older sister Emily, died of pancreatic cancer, three years after her husband: “It’s these parallel universes when someone you live is sick. Your world is this completely foreign place involving radiation and tumor marker. Outside, people are buying sweaters.”
On her dating history and what’s she’s learned: “I have had dates where we didn’t click,” Couric says. “I once went out with a heart-transplant surgeon who talked about valves the whole night. But I appreciate that it’s not easy to go out on a date with someone like me. Also, when you get to my age, everyone is a bit wounded. So I think it’s important to handle people with care-not to think, “Oh, what a terrible date,” but just, ‘This person isn’t for me.” Everyone has a lot of baggage. It’s just can you fit it into the overhead bin?”
Couric on fame safeguarding her: “Until I was 40, I had smooth sailing and no real challenges in my life, no setbacks. I felt that my charmed life and being on television protected me from bad things happening. It was so ridiculous and irrational.”
On believing pain is like a drug: “I have become slightly inured,” she says. “That doesn’t mean if something else bad happened to me I wouldn’t suffer. It’s just that your threshold for suffering increases.”
Two years after Monahan died, Couric threw singles parties: “We insisted that every woman bring two male friends,” Kathleen Lobb, a college friend recalls. I went out with a couple of people. I don’t think Katie did.”
