Apr 17, 2024 - 23:47
By huffpost.com

Katie Couric Recalls Bryant Gumbel's 'Incredibly Sexist' Response To Her Maternity Leave

Katie Couric says “Today” co-host Bryant Gumbel gave her “endless shit” about going on maternity leave back in the early ’90s.

The veteran newscaster remembered Gumble being a bit “prickly” when they worked together, telling Bill Maher, “He got mad at me because I was doing something on maternity leave.”

“He was giving me endless shit for taking like a month or two off,” Couric said while appearing on Maher’s “Club Random” podcast. “I was having my first baby.”

“Yeah, I could see that,” said Maher, who earlier in the interview revealed he’d heard Gumbel could be a tough nut to crack.

“He was like, ‘Why don’t you just drop it in the field and come back to work right away or something?’” Couric said, prompting Maher to add that Gumbel was clearly joking.

“No, he was kidding,” she said. “He was goofing on me but giving me a lot of shit, but it was emblematic of an incredibly sexist attitude.”

Pointing to disgraced morning host Matt Lauer’s tenure on “Today,” Maher admitted there was “obviously a tradition of an old boy’s network” at NBC.

“It was a very different environment, ” Couric contended, before dishing about how interoffice “schtupping” was not uncommon at the time.

Despite their personal differences, the morning TV icon said Gumbel is a true “talent” when it comes to his work.

“He is such a seamless broadcaster, so eloquent,” she added.

Couric began her tenure at NBC in 1989 and quickly found herself in the role of substitute anchor, making her one of the people who would take Gumbel’s desk when he wasn’t there.

She was promoted to permanent co-anchor in 1991, the same year she welcomed her eldest child, daughter Ellie Monahan.