Game shows, a second chance at love, and a life-changing diagnosis. For millions of TV viewers, Katie Couric was once a trusted source for delivering the day's biggest news stories — so where'd she go?
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00:00Game shows, a second chance at love, and a life-changing diagnosis.
00:05For millions of TV viewers, Katie Couric was once a trusted source for delivering
00:09the day's biggest news stories. So where'd she go?
00:13In 2014, Katie Couric's daytime talk show, Katie, ended after two years on the air.
00:19But Couric didn't waste any time in finding something else.
00:22That same year, she signed a deal with Yahoo to anchor the company's news on the internet.
00:27The host was especially excited to have some freedom in her new gig, telling Politico,
00:32"...what I really am excited about in working with the team at Yahoo
00:35is that there are no rules right now. We are going to try things,
00:39we are going to see how they go, we are going to see what people are interested in.
00:43We can do everything from a town hall meeting to in-depth interviews to a breaking news story."
00:48However, the fact that there were no rules might have been worse than Couric originally anticipated.
00:53By 2017, she ended her stint with Yahoo,
00:56citing a lack of fulfillment and claiming that the brand didn't know how to market its products.
01:00She told the Recode Decode podcast,
01:03"...I had all this great content, I was getting big interviews,
01:06and it was sort of like a tree falling in the forest. They didn't put it on the front page."
01:11Couric's first marriage to Jay Monahan ended in tragedy.
01:15Monahan died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 42. He and Couric were married for nine years,
01:21and they shared two children. In the wake of her family's loss, Couric threw herself into her
01:26career, telling People,
01:28"...Working was my salvation. If I was doing a cooking segment,
01:31I couldn't be thinking about, you know, Jay's latest scan. It helped me maintain my sanity."
01:36"...Words, of course, will never describe how devastating this loss has been for me
01:39and my daughters and all of Jay's family as well."
01:42Couric eventually found love again. In 2014, she got married to former financier John Molnar.
01:48Couric said on Today after the wedding,
01:50"...It just felt right and perfect, and so I just wasn't nervous at all."
01:56And her marital bliss lasted well into the year. A few months after the wedding, Couric told People,
02:01"...Life is great. It's fun. He's really funny and really fun to be with.
02:05I love being with him. The honeymoon isn't over yet, so it's nice."
02:09The honeymoon seems to still be intact. On their ninth wedding anniversary in 2023,
02:14Molnar paid tribute to his wife on Instagram, writing,
02:17"...Nine years! What an adventure! I'm lucky to have you in my life! Where to next?"
02:23Throughout her career, Couric has had a number of acting opportunities thrown her way.
02:27She played a prison guard in 2002's Austin Powers & Goldmember
02:32and appeared in two episodes of Will & Grace as herself.
02:35"...Hey, kid, can you tell us what's going on here? Did you just call me kid?
02:41You're Katie Couric."
02:43After voicing a character in the 2004 animated film Shark Tale,
02:47she went on an acting hiatus for a number of years. She started acting again in the 2010s,
02:52nabbing small parts in Zoolander 2 and Sully, among others. In 2011,
02:57she made a return to the TV realm and appeared in Season 2 of Glee, once again as herself.
03:03"...Thoughts? I hate you, Diane Sawyer."
03:08Her acting work continued into the 2020s. Couric appeared as herself in a 2020 episode of The Boys,
03:15and in 2023, she played a reporter in two episodes of the podcast Supreme, The Battle for Roe.
03:21After leaving TV hosting behind, Couric went all-in on producing. The host,
03:26along with her husband, founded her own production company called Katie Couric Media.
03:31The company produces both scripted and unscripted programming. Among her projects
03:35have been Flint, Unbelievable and An American Bombing, The Road to April 19th. Katie Couric
03:41Media is still alive and well today, and the company also works with major companies to
03:46create branded content. Molnar said on the company's website,
03:50"...KCM is proud to help brands tell stories that matter through a collaborative partnership with
03:55one of the most trusted voices in media." Couric couldn't let hosting go completely
04:00by the wayside. In 2017, she and Molnar joined forces to host an internet cooking show called
04:05Full Plate. The series followed the couple as they learned about cooking from renowned chef
04:10Joel Gamorin. In an interview with Bon Appetit, Couric had this to say about her culinary skills
04:15at the beginning of the series,
04:17"...It wasn't that I couldn't boil water, but I was nervous to try cooking fish or dried beans
04:22or more complicated things." As the series progressed, however, Couric and Molnar were
04:26cooking up dishes like lamb chops, scallops, and cauliflower grits.
04:31In 2020, legendary Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek tragically passed away at the age of 80.
04:37While the producers of the series searched for a permanent host, a slew of guest hosts did their
04:41best to fill Trebek's shoes. Among the guest hosts were Mayim Bialik, Ken Jennings, and Couric.
04:47I watch the show a lot. I watch it regularly, but I started watching it religiously."
04:54Couric spoke to Pointer about what it was like to host the iconic game show. She told the outlet,
05:00"...I tried to make it my own, but also respect the institution because
05:04Jeopardy! is not really a game show. It doesn't feel right to call it a game show.
05:08It is an American institution. It was a lot of fun, but it was a very tough job."
05:13Ultimately, Bialik and Jennings were chosen as permanent hosts,
05:16with Jennings becoming the sole host in late 2023.
05:21After spending decades on television, Couric still felt like the world didn't quite know who she was.
05:26To rectify that, she wrote a memoir called Going There, which was released in 2021 to critical
05:31acclaim. The memoir offered a behind-the-scenes look at events in Couric's career, such as her
05:36intimate meeting with Princess Diana. Another hot topic covered in the book was Matt Lauer,
05:42Couric's Today co-host who got ousted in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.
05:47Couric wrote in Going There,
05:48"...I know Matt thinks I betrayed him, and that makes me sad, but he betrayed me too,
05:53by how he behaved behind closed doors at the show we both cared about so much."
05:57The host also owned up to her own past journalistic indiscretions, such as
06:01omitting one of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's interview responses to a question about police brutality.
06:06Couric wrote,
06:07"...I lost a lot of sleep over that one and still wrestle with the decision I made."
06:12In 2022, Couric opened up about some devastating health news — she had breast cancer.
06:17The veteran anchor recounted the moment she learned of her diagnosis in a Katie Couric
06:22Media blog post, writing,
06:24"...I felt sick and the room started to spin. I was in the middle of an open office,
06:28so I walked to a corner and spoke quietly,
06:30my mouth unable to keep up with the questions swirling in my head."
06:34"...I was pretty stunned."
06:36The veteran anchor was afraid of what this all could mean not only for her,
06:39but for her daughters. She wrote in the post,
06:42"...they'd already lost one parent. The idea of losing another was unfathomable."
06:47Couric's treatment consisted of a surgery to remove a tumor in her breast
06:50and radiation to clear out any remaining cancer cells in her body.
06:54The surgery and radiation were both successful, and as of 2024, Couric is in remission.
07:00The former television host has since used her experience to advocate for the importance of
07:04early cancer detection, as that's what kept her sickness from manifesting into something
07:09more dangerous. She told People in 2023,
07:12"...I was very fortunate. My cancer was caught very, very early when it's most treatable,
07:17and if I can just be an advertisement for people to get screened,
07:20to get their mammography done, to talk to their doctors,
07:23and if they have dense breasts, to get additional screening."
07:27Couric didn't just use her own experience with cancer to advocate for early detection.
07:31She also began campaigning for everyone to have access to quality health care.
07:36In her essay about her diagnosis, Couric pointed out how crucial it is that people
07:40have access to regular checkups as well as diagnostic scans, writing,
07:44"...to reap the benefits of modern medicine, we need to stay on top of our screenings,
07:48advocate for ourselves, and make sure everyone has access to the diagnostic
07:52tools that could very well save their life."
07:54She then began casting a wider net. Couric now speaks regularly to podcast hosts and
07:59journalists about the importance of health care equity. She told Forbes,
08:03"...when I learned that Black women or women of color have a 40 percent higher mortality rate,
08:08I felt both grateful that I had access to care but also enraged that so many women don't."
08:13"...I think women have to advocate for their own health."
08:16She also opened up to USA Today about her passions for advocacy, saying,
08:21"...people must roll their eyes and say,
08:22oh there she goes again from colons to boobs. But I feel like I have an obligation,
08:27that I have an audience. They've watched me for a long time."
08:31Couric has an estimated net worth of $110 million,
08:35so it's safe to say she never has to work again. However,
08:38the superstar journalist is still keeping busy in her post-TV host era.
08:42Back in 2016, Couric launched her podcast Next Question with Katie Couric,
08:47and she's been releasing episodes on a regular basis ever since.
08:50Furthermore, Katie Couric Media has expanded significantly. Couric told CNBC in 2024,
08:57"...we now are sort of a thoroughly modern media company with newsletters.
09:01We have four now. We have obviously a podcast, and I'm giving birth,
09:05not literally, to other podcasts."
09:08"...and then of course I use social media to do a lot of news-making interviews."
09:13However, Couric's life isn't all business. She's celebrated some personal milestones recently, too.
09:19In 2024, Couric became a grandmother for the first time,
09:23when her daughter Ellie Monahan gave birth. Couric told USA Today,
09:27"...I'm looking forward to spending time with my grandchild and just doing the fun stuff,
09:31because grandparents get to do the fun stuff."