'Why Me?' Katie Couric's Candid Reaction to Cancer Diagnosis 24 Years after Losing Her Husband to Same Disease

• Katie Couric reveals her struggle with illness after she kept it in secret for months.
• "They'd already lost one parent. The idea of losing another was unfathomable", Katie Couric said about her daughters.

Katie Couric had dominated the media industry, taken on different roles as the anchor of Today, Yahoo Global News, and eventually ventured out to be independent when she launched her website katiecouric.com.

The news anchor recently revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Couric shared the news on her Instagram and then wrote an essay on her website.

Today reported on the essay and stated that Couric had mixed emotions towards her diagnosis. She said after recalling the number of family members she has lost to cancer, her reaction went from "why me" to "why not me."

The former Today anchor shared that she lost her first husband, Jay Monahan, from colon cancer, at 42, her sister to pancreatic cancer, and her mother-in-law from ovarian cancer.

The 65-year-old also let us into the moment she found out about her diagnosis. As Couric got the call from her doctor, she said she was in an open office and went to the corner to try to process the information. "I felt sick, and the room started to spin," she added.

The author also confirmed that there is no history of breast cancer in her family, but when she researched her diagnosis, she found that every two minutes, a woman in America is diagnosed with breast cancer.

Therefore, Couric took a moment to share her story on Instagram and alert other women to have their breasts regularly scanned.

After losing her husband when her children were still young, Couric said the news of her diagnosis brought back the painful memories of them losing a parent. She expressed: "They'd already lost one parent. The idea of losing another was unfathomable."

"The thought of fighting cancer after she watched her husband fight this deadly disease was scary. Couric shared some of the difficult moments of Monahan's sickness in her book "Going There."

Katie Couric Looks Back at Her Marriage with Jay Monahan

Couric had an interview with People and opened up about the process of writing her memoir "Going There," where she wrote about her love story with Monahan.

The journalist said the book made her remember the cold night of January when she met her first husband at a party in northern Virginia.

Couric said she was particularly drawn to Monahan because of the way she felt safe around him. Whether they were dancing or he was explaining anything about planes, the journalist loved how gentle yet funny he was.

She described her late husband to be "handsome, mischievous." Couric and Monahan married in 1989 and welcomed two daughters together, Carrie, 25, and Ellie, 30.

Monahan was diagnosed with colon cancer and lost his battle with the disease in 1998, at 42 years old. He and Couric had been happily married for nine years, but the journalist opened up about the difficulty of watching her husband suffer.

Couric told Today that she believed she was too scared to face the death of her husband, so she spent most of his final days hoping he would recover. She said, "I was so worried about letting go of hope because I didn't want Jay to spend whatever time he had left just waiting to die,"

Couric even said in a part of her book that she wished she did not keep her husband from dying but instead spent his last days letting go and allowing him to say goodbye.

How Katie Couric's Daughter Survived the Death of Their Father

When Couric lost her husband, her eldest daughter Ellie was six, and Carrie was two. The journalist was thrown into the deep end, juggling her growing career and being a mother.

The journalist told Closer Weekly that she was grateful that she did not decide to become a stay-at-home mother after falling pregnant with her first daughter.

Although Couric respects stay-at-home mothers, she clarified that in a situation like hers, being financially independent helped her carry her family through this big transition.

Since her children were young when they lost their father, the new anchor revealed that she and her eldest daughter Ellie took the initiative to educate people about colon cancer and push them to get regular screenings.

Couric also revealed that she wrote her memoir for her children so they could imagine the kind of man her late husband was and the relationship he shared with their mother.

The author told Closer Weekly that her children appreciated the book and called her in tears after reading it. Now Couric is a mother of two grown women. Her eldest Ellie is reported to have followed in her mother's footsteps.

Closer Weekly reported that the 30-year-old graduated from Yale University in 2013. After completing a qualification at the ivy league school, Ellie is said to have taken a few writing jobs. She reportedly helped write a few episodes of TV series like The Boys, Mr. Robot, and more.

In 2019, the mother of two announced that Ellie was engaged to long-time partner, Mark Dobrosky. Though Couric wished her late husband was there to have seen their daughters graduate and walk down the aisle, she was still very proud of her girls.

As for the youngest, Carrie is bright, like her sister and mother. Carrie graduated from Stanford University. She reportedly spent time in France teaching English. She became part of the Black and Pink pen pal program.

According to the program's website, they initiate "a nationwide pen pal program in which we match incarcerated LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS with pen pals who correspond, build relationships and participate in harm reduction and affirmation."

Couric experienced painful times in her life, but she has been married to financier John Molner since 2014 and raised intelligent women willing to change the world. We also wish her strength and a full recovery.