Katie: 'I Would Love To Be Married'
More than eight years after the death of her husband, Jay Monahan, Katie Couric says she still feels a sense of deep loss but is open to marrying again one day.
"I'm doing great. My kids are thriving," Couric says tearfully, in the new issue of Parade magazine. "But when I see a father walking down the street with a little girl and holding her hand, my feeling of loss is palpable. I'm so envious. We were ripped off. I was ripped off, and that's all there is to it."
Monahan died from colon cancer in 1998, leaving the anchor a single mom to two young girls, Ellie and Caroline, and boosting her involvement in the fight against colon cancer. "But this is the life we've been given, so what can you do?" Couric says.
Couric, 49, says she's had two romantic involvements since her husband passed away, but hasn't found a new mate.
"Ultimately, I would love to be married or in a really solid, committed relationship," she tells Parade. "I'd love that now. But he just hasn't materialized. And I'm not going to force it. Those things have to happen organically."
Couric, former co-host of "Today," will start her new gig as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News in September. She will be the first female solo anchor of a weekday network evening news broadcast. She will also be a 60 Minutes correspondent and will anchor CBS News primetime specials as well.
One of her biggest responsibilities on the home front, though, is two protect her two daughters who have experienced this loss with her.
"It does make you wary. But you don't want to be so cautious that your heart isn't open," she explains. "I've started to think it's important for my girls to realize there are some really nice, wonderful men out there, because we live in a bit of a sorority house here. Everyone in our house is female. Even the guinea pig is female."
"There are obviously some behaviors I don't participate in," Couric says, referring to sleepovers at home with dates. "But I have a very full social life."
Couric adds that success itself doesn't protect you from hardship in your life. "Some really tragic things have happened in my life, and some really wonderful things and one doesn't make up for the other," she says.
The new issue of Parade magazine will be available on Sunday.
By Amy Bonawitz