From 1991-97 NBC viewers welcomed Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric into their homes every morning on The Today Show.
The talented duo had a mix of personality and journalistic skills that kept things humming along perfectly in their time at the helm.
However, a new interview with Couric has shined some light on the duo, and it seems as though the longtime host of Real Sports took issue with Couric going on maternity leave after having her first child in 1991.
Appearing on Bill Maher’s podcast Club Random, Couric explained that Gumbel had what she felt was a “sexist attitude.”
“He got mad at me because I was doing something on maternity leave, and he was giving me endless **** for taking like a month or two off. I was having my first baby,” Couric recounted, via Variety.
“He was like, ‘Why don’t you just drop it in the field and come back to work right away or something?'” she added.
Maher suggested that maybe Gumbel was just joking around or giving her a hard time, and while Couric says in this instance there was some kidding involved, it reflected a bigger problem with Gumbel. “He was goofing on me but giving me a lot of ****, but it was emblematic of an incredibly sexist attitude,” she said.
One thing Couric did respect about Gumbel, though, was how gifted he was as a broadcaster.
“He was prickly but I mean, what a talent. He’s such a seamless broadcaster, eloquent. When that countdown would happen, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, he would just hit it perfect.”
[Variety]
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