Katie Couric claims former Today co-anchor Bryant Gumbel got "mad" about her maternity leave

Katie Couric appeared on the Club Random podcast on April 14, 2024, where she made a few claims about her Today show co-host, Bryant Gumbel. Couric revealed that Gumbel was unhappy with her about a few things and said:

"He got mad at me because I was doing something on maternity leave. And he was giving me endless s**t for taking like a month or two off. I was having my first baby."

Katie began hosting the Today show in 2012 and remained a part of the same until 2014. After working as Yahoo's Global News Anchor from 2013 to 2017, she founded Katie Couric Media.

Meanwhile, Gumbel's representatives have not shared any response to Couric's statement on the Club Random podcast.

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Katie Couric addressed a few more instances involving Bryant Gumbel: Podcast statements explored

People magazine stated that Club Random podcast is hosted by Bill Maher, who is a close friend of Bryant Gumbel. In the latest episode of the podcast, Katie Couric described Gumbel as a "guy's guy." She recalled the time she worked with Gumbel and stated:

"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."

Furthermore, Katie Couric mentioned Gumbel's "incredibly s**ist attitude", saying that he requested her a few times to return when she was on break due to her pregnancy. Couric's statement resulted from Maher's claims at the beginning of the interview, where he said that Gumbel got "mad" since they were not in frequent contact with each other.

Katie Couric had previously spoken up on her experience working with Gumbel on a Wake-Up Call newsletter in 2019, recalling a moment when the duo argued as she was willing to go on a break. She wrote in the newsletter:

"Let's just say, Bryant Gumbel didn't quite get it. It's pretty shocking to watch it now, 28 years later!"

A video clip of the conversation from Today show also went viral where Bryant questioned Couric about the reason for taking a long leave. Katie was preparing to welcome her first child at the time and although she wanted to take a leave for nine weeks, she decided to take a break for four weeks. Gumbel thought it was too much as he said:

"Our ancestors didn't worry about that shock to your body. They came right back and worked.

To which Couric replied, "And they died when they were, like, 32 years old."

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Katie Couric speaks on the accusations against Matt Lauer and the MAGA movement

During her appearance on the Club Random podcast, Katie Couric was questioned about Matt Lauer, who was fired in 2017 after multiple charges of s**ual misconduct emerged against him. Katie replied by saying that the situation was different when the allegations came out and there were "lots of fraternization." She continued:

"I don't want to use the word microaggresions, but if you think of the true definition of the word, it was replete with microaggressions."

Couric also shared her thoughts on the political movement launched during Donald Trump's election campaign 2016, named MAGA (Make America Great Again). She described the transformation of the world from industrial to technological as "corroding and bitter" and stated:

"The socio-economic disparities are a lot and class resentment is a lot and anti-intellectualism and elitism is what is driving many of these anti-establishment [people] – which are Trump voters – so, I think that is a huge problem that we have to address."

However, Couric's comments were reportedly not well-received by the public and they reacted to the same on social media platforms. Donald Trump used the term MAGA on different occasions and back in 2017, he even created hashtags of the same on social media.