Katie Couric Says This ‘Today’ Co-Anchor Had an “Incredibly Sexist Attitude” About Her Maternity Leave

Katie Couric co-anchored NBC’s Today for 15 years, from 1991 to 2006; her first six years, from 1991 to 1997, were alongside fellow co-anchor Bryant Gumbel, who had been at the program since 1982. Early in her tenure on Today, Couric went on maternity leave in 1991 after giving birth to daughter Ellie that July, and Couric told Bill Maher on his “Club Random” podcast that she was met with an “incredibly sexist attitude” from Gumbel.

“He got mad at me because I was doing something on maternity leave,” Couric said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “And he was giving me endless shit for taking, like, a month or two off. I was having my first baby.” (Daughter Carrie would follow in January 1996.)

Couric recalled Gumbel telling her “Why don’t you just drop it [the baby] in the field and come back to work right away or something?” Couric did acknowledge to Maher that “he was goofing on me,” but still said his comments were “emblematic of short of an incredibly sexist attitude.”

Earlier in the episode, Maher said that he and Gumbel are “friends” and called him a “guy’s guy,” to which Couric responded “He’s a guy’s guy, you got that right,” she said. “He was prickly, but what a talent. He’s such a seamless broadcaster, eloquent. When that countdown would happen—five, four, three, two, one—he would just hit it perfect.” She added “Complicated guy, though, I think—really talented guy, incredibly smart.”

In a 2019 installment of her company Katie Couric Media’s newsletter, “Wake-Up Call,” Couric recalled an “uncomfortable exchange” with Gumbel on her last day of work before taking her 1991 maternity leave. “Let’s just say, Bryant Gumbel didn’t quite get it,” she wrote, per USA Today. “It’s pretty shocking to watch it now, 28 years later.” 

In the clip (linked above), Gumbel asks Couric why she’s taking “so long” off work. Couric, then 34, said she would be away from Today for nine weeks total—she ultimately only took four weeks off.

“I’m going to relax for three weeks [before giving birth], as much as you can relax when you’re carrying around 30 extra pounds,” Couric told Gumbel. “Then hopefully I’ll have the baby and everything. It’s a major shock to your body, I hope you realize, when you have a baby. And it takes a while to get back to normal and get on a schedule.”

(Please keep in mind that this is all happening on live television, with the entire country watching…) Gumbel seemed to imply that was too much time, saying in response “Our ancestors didn’t worry about that shock to your body. They came right back and worked.” In retort, Couric said “And they died when they were, like, 32 years old,” to which Gumbel responded “You’re 34—what are you worried about?”

As the exchange continued to get more and more uncomfortable, Couric came to her own defense, noting she hadn’t had more than a week off of work in a year. Gumbel then leveled the question “How many men get nine weeks off?” to which Couric responded “Do we have to do this in, like, a sexist debate?” before asking her co-anchor to “be nice to me” on her last day.

Couric told USA Today in 2019—the same year Couric resurfaced this clip—that her relationship with Gumbel was “very friendly”: “It’ll be interesting to hear his reaction, but we had a great working relationship,” she said. “I think some of [his attitude] was sort of in jest, and clearly he was giving me a hard time, but just in context of all the conversations these days, it was interesting to watch.”

Couric made it clear to the outlet that she had no ill will against Gumbel, but that the “funny/not funny” clip was a great launchpad into a discussion about the stigma against maternity leave in the U.S., the publication reported. “Times have changed so much but I do think there’s a lot of implicit bias against moms,” Couric said. “I think it’s important to make sure your employer is up on the times and that women aren’t penalized, consciously or unconsciously, when they have children.”

In Couric’s conversation with Maher, the podcast host noted that Matt Lauer—who succeeded Gumbel as Couric’s co-anchor—was also there alongside Gumbel before Gumbel’s ultimate departure in 1997.  “Obviously, there was a tradition of an old boys’ network,” Maher said. (Lauer was fired from Today in 2017 amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.)

“It was a very different environment, very different,” Couric responded. “Lots of fraternization—a polite way of saying inner-office schtupping.” 

In response, Maher added that “Women had to put up with more. They just did. I mean, you know, not to get all fuzzy and Lifetime Channel about it, but people like you and Barbara Walters—or just like women comedians of a certain age—you have to really tip your hat to them, because it was harder.”

Couric agreed, adding “I don’t want to use the word microaggressions, but if you think of the true definition of the word, it was replete with microaggressions.”

Couric shared Ellie and Carrie with her late husband, Jay Monahan, who died in January 1998 from colon cancer. Last month, Ellie became a mother herself, giving birth to a baby boy named John Albert Dobrosky, who will be called Jay in his late grandfather’s honor.