Katie Couric is reflecting on the “sexist attitude” she experienced as a female journalist in the ’90s.
On Sunday’s episode of Bill Maher‘s “Club Random” podcast, the veteran news anchor reflected on her relationship with former “Today” show co-host Bryant Gumbel while they were the faces of the morning program between 1991 and 1997, when Gumbel left NBC for CBS.
The Television Hall of Fame inductee praised Gumbel as “a seamless broadcaster” who is “really talented” and “incredibly smart,” but acknowledged they sometimes butted heads.
“He’s a guy’s guy. You got that right,” Couric, 67, told Maher. “He was prickly, but I mean, what a talent. I mean, my God.”
“Complicated guy, though, I think,” she added. Gumbel, 75, left “Today” in 1997 after 15 years. Couric also had a 15-year tenure, leaving in 2006.
Couric recalled an incident from 1991 as an example of a time when they were at odds.
Gumbel “got mad at me” as Couric was about to embark on maternity leave when she was pregnant with her first child, she said, and gave her “endless” flack for her upcoming time off.
“I was having my first baby,” she told Maher. “He was like, ‘Why don’t you just drop it in the field and come back to work right away?’ or something.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Gumbel’s representative for comment.
She acknowledged that “he was kidding” and “goofing on me,” but Couric said this exchange “was emblematic of sort of an incredibly sexist attitude.” Being a female journalist entailed a work environment that…
