30 Fascinating Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Katie Couric

18 June 2019, 4:37 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Katie Couric, world renowned for her role as the anchor of CBS Evening News, has often been dubbed "America's Sweetheart" due to her role as the co-anchor of "The Today Show" for 15 years. She is also known for her role in various awareness campaign related to colonoscopy and breast cancer. Here are some really interesting things to know about the American journalist and author:

She became the first solo female anchor of the "big three" weekday nightly news broadcasts, when she joined the CBS, leaving NBC.
She is known to have interviewed many international political figures and celebrities including Presidents Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and also the First Lady Barbara Bush.
It was also reported that John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of President John F. Kennedy, who died in a plane crash in the year 1999, gave his very first as well as the very last interview to Couric.
In recognition for her leadership in increasing cancer awareness and screening, she was the Guest of Honor for the inaugural American Cancer Society Discovery Ball.
She became the Honorary National Chair of the National Parkinson Foundation's Moving Day campaign, a grassroots campaign to spotlight Parkinson's disease awareness on a national level in the year 2011.
She was part of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and broadcasted her own mammogram on the Today show, on October 7, 2005, in an effort to create awareness around the issue of breast cancer.
Following the death of her first husband, she became the spokeswoman for colon cancer awareness and even underwent a colonoscopy on-air in March 2000.
She was very active in the National Hockey League's Hockey Fights Cancer campaign, and even appeared in some public service announcements.
She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. international think tank, promoting globalization as the key factor in modern foreign policy.
Katherine Anne Couric was born on January 7, 1957 to John Martin Couric and Elinor Tullie (née Hene) in Arlington, Virginia.

Her father was a public relations executive and news editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the United Press in Washington, D.C., while her mother was a homemaker and part-time writer.
It is reported that her patrilineal ancestry can be traced back to a French orphan who immigrated to the U.S. in the 19th century and became a broker in the cotton business.
She went to the Arlington Public Schools, where she was a cheerleader. During her time at the Yorktown High School, she was an intern at Washington, D.C. all-news radio station WAVA.
She attended her father's alma mater, the University of Virginia, where she was a Delta Delta Delta sorority sister. She was also serving in several positions at the UVA's award-winning daily newspaper, The Cavalier Daily.
She started her career at the ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C., in the year 1979, before joining CNN as an assignment editor.
She worked as a general-assignment reporter for the then-CBS affiliate WTVJ in Miami, Florida from 1984 to 1986.
Following two years, she reported for WRC-TV, the NBC owned- and -operated station in Washington, D.C. Her work earned her an Associated Press award and an Emmy.
In the year 1989, she joined NBC News as Deputy Pentagon Correspondent, and for the next two years she was an anchor substitute.
She along with Mike Tirico, co-hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies, providing additional Winter Olympic coverage and athlete interviews.
It was during this opening ceremony that she erroneously suggested that the Dutch use skates as a normal mode of transportation during wintertime.

This is said to have prompted criticism and bemusement from the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands. Later, Couric apologized that her intended compliment didn't "come out" as intended. The Embassy accepted her apology and invited her to the Netherlands for a tour.
She joined Today as national political correspondent in the year 1989, and two years later she became a substitute co-host, when Deborah Norville went on maternity leave in February 1991.
Two months later, she became a permanent co-anchor when Norville did not return. She went on to stay at Today and NBC News for fifteen years until May 31, 2006.
During her time on Today, she also served as a host of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for 15 years from 1991–2005.
Following her arrival at the CBS, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric won the 2008 and 2009 Edward R. Murrow Award for best newscast. She was honored with the Emmy Governor's Award for her broadcasting career in the year 2009.
In November 2013, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer announced that Couric has been hired as Global Anchor of Yahoo! News, a position she took over on January 13, 2014.
She received an honorary doctor of science degree for her efforts in raising awareness of colorectal cancer and for her commitment to advancing medical research from Case Western Reserve University on May 16, 2010.
She was honored with Doctor of Humane Letters doctoral degree, following her commencement speech at Boston University in the year 2011.
She married attorney John Paul "Jay" Monahan on June 10, 1989, who died at a young age of 42, after a hard nine-month fight against colon cancer. The duo had two daughters Elinor Tully "Ellie" Monahan and Caroline "Carrie." She posted heart-breaking pictures as a tribute to her late husband on their 30th wedding anniversary.
She got engaged to financier John Molner in September 2013, after dating him for two years. The couple married on June 21, 2014, in a small, private ceremony at her home in The Hamptons. Couric and Molner star in the online cooking series "Full Plate with Katie & John" on the Sur LA Table website.