Many Americans likely feel like they know Katie Couric. And from birth,
her daughters have had to share their famous news anchor mother,
along with their emotional family journey, with the world. But what are they like now?
Turns out that Couric's daughters have grown up to be absolutely gorgeous.
Pregnant with her first child in 1991, Katie Couric stated on the Today show that she planned
to take only nine weeks of maternity leave. Though it was not a long absence for a pregnancy,
colleague and co-host Bryant Gumbel certainly didn't appear to understand.
"How long you gone?"
"I'm gone for 9 weeks."
"Why so long?"
Couric schooled him on the fact that birthing a baby would take a major toll on her body,
and that she would need time to recover and, of course, to bond with her child!
Due to that kind of pressure and bias, Couric actually ended up taking just
four weeks of leave after giving birth to her first daughter,
Elinor "Ellie" Tully Monahan, on July 23, 1991, as reported by USA Today. Her second daughter,
Caroline "Carrie" Couric Monahan, came less than five years later on January 5, 1996.
Ellie and Carrie were really young when their father, Jay Monahan,
passed away from colon cancer in 1998. Carrie was at an age where she couldn't understand much,
but Couric told CureToday.com that Ellie was very close with her father.
Even while dealing with the prognosis and the cancer treatment,
Couric felt that the most important way to handle the situation
was to be honest with the girls about their father's grave illness
and to focus on making sure they got through it as well as possible. As she told the New York Post -
"I was so surprised that there was nothing in the school system to help children deal with loss."
Jay Monahan's death was surely hard, but the girls grieved by, for instance, sending
balloons to heaven on his birthday. Years later, Ellie wrote in an essay published in HuffPost -
"There are moments where I crumble at the thought of my father."
The year 1997 marked a horrific Thanksgiving for Katie Couric and her family, as she shared
in a personal essay for Time. That year, she and her daughters were deep in the throes of
Jay Monahan's stage 4 cancer diagnosis, and celebrating the holidays was remarkably sad
with a loved one fighting for his life. Couric and her daughters spent that season balancing
their fear and pain with an attempt to maintain some spark of holiday spirit. Many holidays full
of joy and laughter have presumably come and gone since Monahan died, but Couric said -
"Nearly twenty years later, when I think of that Thanksgiving, it makes me cry."
"My daughter was only 2 when her dad died and I remember when she was 3 years old she said
'Daddy came through the window last night, knelt beside me and said Carrie, I'm so proud of you."
Father's Day also presented a massive challenge for daughter Ellie, as she shared in her personal
essay. She regretted that she wouldn't be celebrating her dad by presenting him with
any of the typical Father's Day gifts, but she assured readers in her HuffPost article:
"I will be thinking of dads everywhere enjoying their kids as well as good health,
knowing my father's death has saved perhaps more than a few lives."
Katie Couric has described her eldest daughter, Ellie as a particularly private person.
The journalist told AOL that she once told a story about Ellie during a magazine interview
when the girl was about 16 years old. Afterward, Couric was taken by surprise
when the then-teenager sat her down to request that she ask permission before
sharing information about her on television or social media in the future. As Couric said -
"I think she understands that people care about her and wish her well
and are invested in her in a really nice way."
But the TV personality appreciated that while she had chosen a public life,
Ellie had not — so she agreed to get consent before doing any more dishing on her daughters.
To this day, Ellie remains guarded and keeps her social media posts private. Considering
the attention the children of public figures often receive, we can understand her decision.
It had to have made her daughters proud when Katie Couric broke the glass ceiling in 2006
and made history as the first solo female anchor of an evening newscast. But while the move from
Today to CBS Evening News was gratifying, it also took up more of her time. In short, the girls
weren't huge fans of their mother's work schedule, though they were supportive of her career move.
In an interview with Glamour, Couric detailed how important her daughters are to her, and
how she made every effort to attend their school functions and extracurricular activities, saying -
"The big key is being disciplined enough to walk out the door of CBS at 7:05 P.M."
Sometimes she would head out to watch one of the girls' volleyball games before going on air.
Their mother's busy work schedule meant that weekend time together was precious,
according to Couric. She and her daughters would spend that time doing
precious bonding activities together like apple picking and making pies.
In 2009, Katie Couric's daughter Ellie left home and began working toward a Bachelor of Arts at
Yale. She landed impressive internships, including stints working with the New York
County District Attorney's office and at HBO. According to The Hollywood Reporter,
sources said that Ellie worked harder than anyone else at her HBO internship
and is remembered as one of the program's best-ever interns.
Ellie's time at Yale no doubt helped her to establish her own identity
and move toward independence, traits which Couric instilled in her daughters.
Couric once said to Good Housekeeping that the girls shouldn't expect to depend on
her for finances or decision-making once they finished school, saying -
"They have to establish their own identities, and that includes their own financial identities."
And after graduating in 2013, Ellie likely discovered that her mother wasn't joking
all of those times when she warned the girls they'd have to find their
own way. When Ellie was shocked by that, Couric said that she told her,
"'Welcome to the real world, honey."
Like her sister, Carrie has pursued strong educational experiences.
In 2013, a year before she attended Stanford University,
Carrie learned about television production as a research intern at Ark Media. Then in 2016,
she interned with Ark Media again, working on post-production for Oklahoma City,
a PBS American Experience documentary, and on pre-production for the PBS miniseries The Gene.
The next year, Carrie dove into constitutional concerns with a role as a communications intern
at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she wrote a manual, a step-by-step guide
to the deportation process, and more, and she also analyzed data regarding racial profiling.
And to round out her resume, Carrie volunteered
at a Parisian elementary school where she taught English to young children in 2016.
After the death of their father, Katie Couric's daughters saw their mother
through some relationship pains, so they were happy and possibly a little shocked
when Couric accepted the proposal of banker John Molner over Labor Day weekend in 2013.
The couple was introduced by mutual friends just the year before their engagement -
"So he finally asked me out we met at a restaurant and what can I say, he had me at hello."
Couric said her girls already seemed to really like John.
Still, revealing her daughters' reactions, Couric told Access -
"I think they were a little [like] 'Wow,' because it's been the three of us for so long."
Couric was focused on getting her youngest daughter through her senior year of high school,
so she planned to blend their families in an intimate ceremony. Couric's daughters later took
active roles in the event, which took place at Couric's home in the Hamptons on June 21, 2014, as
reported by People. According to another article from People, Ellie read from a love letter that
Woodrow Wilson had written to his wife and Carrie sang the Beatles song "I Will" at the wedding.
In an essay for HuffPost, Ellie remarked that she was fortunate to have been brought up
by her mother and her mother's various friends and coworkers who helped serve
as positive role models. And they may have indirectly helped her to find her calling.
During her college internship at HBO, Ellie likely discovered just how much
she enjoyed working in television. She started her professional career
working as a writer's assistant for the popular TV series Mr. Robot in 2017,
according to her IMDb page, and she has since held multiple jobs behind the scenes in TV. After that,
Ellie went on to work as a writer's assistant and as a scriptwriter for episodes of the shows Liked
in 2017 and The Boys in 2019. She even earned a director's credit for a 2017 episode of Liked.
Not only was Carrie an involved student at Stanford University, but she also graduated with
honors and distinction in 2018, according to a student spotlight from Stanford American Studies.
Carrie also claimed the university's highest award given for an honors thesis for her thesis project,
"A Dream Remembered": Collective Memory & Ancestral Responsibility in Eufaula, Alabama.
She then furthered her studies with a Master of Science in Journalism
at Columbia University in 2018.
Armed with a prestigious journalism degree from Columbia University,
Couric's youngest daughter has found work that allows her to
be a strategic communicator while also making a political and social impact.
In her budding career as a journalist, Carrie may be focusing more on writing than
presenting television news, but the similarities between her and her mother's paths are clear.
Having been a fact checker and research assistant to the editor in chief of Reuters, Carrie has
explored topics ranging from foreign relations and world trade to financial tips for Generation Z.
All of this makes Couric a proud parent, and she's not afraid to let others know it,
continually making Instagram posts that dote on both of her daughters.
In February 2019, Couric's eldest daughter Ellie became engaged to her boyfriend Mark Dobrosky,
as reported by People. Her mother shared the news via an Instagram post which divulged that her
daughter's fiancé had requested both permission to propose and some very special jewelry. Using
the hashtag "#HappyTears," Couric was proud that she kept the secret and revealed that
Ellie now wore the engagement ring given to her by her late husband and Ellie's father.
She went on to gush during the Today show saying -
"I'm so excited, and she's so happy [...] She's going to be a beautiful bride."
Nevertheless, Couric joked enthusiastically that she'd get to be a "monster-in-law."
Given Ellie's private nature, we don't expect to learn too much about her relationship with
Dobrosky, but we imagine Couric might give us some hints in the future.
On the Today show, Couric opened up about how her daughters have grown up, saying -
"I see my husband in my girls and I think how
unfair it is for him not [...] to see the magnificent people they've become."
But even if he's not around to see it,
surely the Monahan girls strive to make their late father proud.
In addition to living full and ambitious lives, the young ladies join their mother in taking
the tragedy of their dad's untimely passing and attempting to give it a higher purpose.
Their advocacy work with the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, which Couric co-founded,
as well as the family's co-founding of the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health in
2004, has helped raise funds, brought awareness to treatment options, and offered family support.
In an article published in HuffPost, Ellie wrote that her dad's absence was
particularly palpable at major life events and that her grief would never fully go away
but she and her sister have done their best to remember him and help others
who've been diagnosed with colon cancer, the same disease that took
their father's life. Couric agreed in an interview with Closer Weekly, saying -
"I honored him by raising two pretty great kids who have a lot of him in them."
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