Katie Couric: I Sometimes Regret Not Having More Children

USMagazine, Sunday, August 19, 2012, 4:15pm (PDT)

Katie Couric is a proud mother of two girls, but in hindsight, the TV journalist wishes she had a bigger family.

Appearing on the September cover of Good Housekeeping, the 55-year-old Katie host opens up about raising daughters Ellie, 21, and Carrie, 16, and the challenges of getting older. (Couric's husband, Jay Monahan, passed away from colon cancer in 1998; She is currently dating financier John Molner, 49.)

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"I love being around my kids. I'm not a particularly solitary person. I like a big, chaotic household -- noise, commotion, laughter!" Couric tells the magazine. "Sometimes I think I should have had six kids. Or I wish I'd had one [more] at 37, but I was busy. My career."

Currently in the midst of menopause, Couric is keenly aware that her childbearing years are behind her. "I was happy to stave it off until I was 55," she laughs. "When you're younger, you dread your period, and when you're older, you want to give it a big hug. You think, 'I've still got it goin' on!' Anyway, I think those days are over."

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Couric admits that she has "total child lust when I see little kids" because it makes the experience more real. "I think emotionally and psychologically, it's weird to feel like, 'Gosh, my childbearing years are over.' And of course they've been over for a long time, but still, they're officially over now. It's kind of a head trip, to tell you the truth."

The former CBS Evening News anchor plans to discuss menopause on her eponymous daytime talk show. In the meantime, she's doing her best to embrace her changing body one day at a time. "I kept hearing, 'Your weight is going to re-distribute, you're going to get thick in the middle.' So I decided I needed to be more committed to exercising -- plus, I think the endorphins are helpful."

"I've always done exercise, but I've never really committed to it," she adds. "I'm not very good about pushing myself physically."

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Getting older, Couric admits, isn't always easy. "Being in the last half of your life is very scary. Turning 55 was more of a wake-up call on that front for me than 50 was."

Still, the former TODAY co-anchor is trying her best to remain upbeat. "The beauty of aging is, the more wrinkles you get, the fewer you can see," she tells Good Housekeeping. "I know it sounds corny, but I think the key to staying young is having joy inside you; being a caring, loving, generous person; and [having] a sense of humor."

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Katie Couric: I Sometimes Regret Not Having More Children