America watched as Katie Couric went through the devastating heartbreak of becoming a young widow when her 42-year-old husband Jay Monahan passed away in 1998 after just a nine month battle with colon cancer. She was the popular anchor of the Today Show at the time with two young children Elinor, then, 6, and Caroline, 2, when Jay died. Now the journalist is remembering their romance on what would have been their 30th wedding anniversary on June 10.
Next to a series of beautiful wedding pics that Katie, 62, posted to her Instagram, she wrote “Dear Jay…It’s June 10th 2019 and today would have been our 30th anniversary. I hope you would be proud of the way I’ve lived my life and know you’d be proud of your girls who have grown into incredible young women,” she began. Ellie is now 27, a Yale graduate and her boyfriend Mark Dobrosky proposed to her in Feb. of 2019 with the same ring Jay proposed to Katie with. Carrie graduated from Stanford in 2018.
It took Katie years to find love again after Jay’s tragic passing. But she finally found it with financial executive John Molner, 56, who she wed in 2014. She addressed that in her IG post, writing, “I think you would like @johnmolner who honors your memory and knows there is room in my heart for you both.❤️ With love, me. PS I’m glad they didn’t let you escape in that last photo! And sorry for the pouffy hat.. I was trying to look ”jaunty. #thenavychapel #icarryyouinmyheart.”
Katie and Jay wed in 1989 she was a Washington D.C. correspondent for Today and he was a lawyer in town. She became the co-anchor of the popular morning show in New York in 1991 and her girl next door demeanor made her beloved. Which is why viewers wept along with her when in 1997 Jay discovered he had colon cancer. After a brave battle, he died just nine months later on January 24, 1998. Young widow Katie then became a strong advocate for colon cancer screenings and detection, even undergoing a live colonoscopy on Today in 2000.