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'He Got Mad At Me': Katie Couric Reveals Today Co-anchor Bryant Gumbel's Reaction To Her Maternity Leave
Katie Couric appeared on a podcast where she talked all thing NBC! She revealed her former co-host got "mad" at her for taking maternity leave and calls him "prickly!"
Bryant Gumbel is a “guys’ guy” but can be “prickly,” says Couric!
The former NBC reporter appeared on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, where she talked about the work environment at NBC back in the day. She also spoke about her “complicated” Co-anchor. An unexpected revelation about Gumbell’s sexist remarks has since gone viral!
Couric calls her former co-host complicated
On the podcast, the host brought Gumbel into the conversation and called him a guys’ guy, and Couric agreed. "He is a guy's guy. He is a guy's guy. You got that right. He is. He was prickly, but I mean, what a talent," she said with a grin.
"He's such a seamless broadcaster, eloquent, When that countdown would happen, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, he would just hit it perfect," she added, to which Maher responded, "Smooth as silk."
Although agreeing with Maher about his talents, she called Gumbel a complicated person. "Right? Complicated guy, though, I think," she added.
Why did Bryant Gumbel get mad at Couric?
She went on to reveal that he gave her “endless s—” about her maternity leave. "He got mad at me because I was doing something on maternity leave," Couric said. "And he was giving me endless s--- for taking like a month or two off. I was having my first baby." 
"Yeah, I could see that" Maher replied.
"He was like, 'Why don't you just drop it in the field and come back to work right away or something? ' It was really—" Couric continued. The podcast host suggested that he might be joking. "No, he was kidding," the journalist agreed. But she added that the jokes were borderline sexist. "He was goofing on me but giving me a lot of s---, but it was emblematic of an incredibly sexist attitude," she said.
The ‘old boys network’ at NBC
It wasn’t surprising that Gumbell was being condescending, as NBC’s work culture at the time dictated it. "Well, obviously, there was a tradition of an old boys' network," Maher said on his show. The “boys” also included Matt Lauer, Couric’s other colleague, who was replaced on account of the sexual misconduct allegations against him during the Mee Too Movement.
"It was a very different environment, very different. And lots of fraternization, a polite way of saying inner-office schtupping," Couric recalled.
Maher agreed and added that women in the office had it rough because of it. "And women had to put up with more. They just did," Maher said.
"I mean, you know, not to get all fuzzy and Lifetime Channel about it, but people like you and Barbara Walters or just like women comedians of a certain age, you have to really tip your hat to them because it was harder," he added, and the Couric Media founder agreed.
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