Katie Couric diagnosed with amnesia after 'freaky occurrence' when she forgot US president
Broadcaster Katie Couric has told how she was diagnosed with transient global amnesia after a "freaky occurrence" last month when she thought it was 2024 and that Joe Biden was US President.
Katie Couric was diagnosed with amnesia after a "freaky occurrence".
The 69-year-old broadcaster recalls being in Aspen for the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 27th, but the "last thing [she] remembers" about the day was going to the hot dog stand for lunch.
Katie's husband John Molner and one of her interns found her "out of it", and when asked details about the year and some current affairs questions she thought it was 2024 and that former US President Joe Biden, rather than Donald Trump, was the current POTUS.
She wrote in a Substack post: "When I was asked the month, the year, and who was president, I got them wrong.
"I wasn’t sure of the month. I thought it was 2024. And I believed Joe Biden was president."
Katie was later diagnosed by neurologist David Perlmutter with transient global amnesia (TGA), a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss where a person cannot form new memories and struggles to recall recent events.
Despite the terrifying incident, Katie is "relieved" it was not more serious.
She added: "This was a freaky occurrence, it could have been much more serious.
"Ultimately, I’m relieved - even though several hours of a Saturday in June will always be missing for me."
Katie recently opened up about suffering sexism at work, when she interned at a radio station after graduating from college in 1979.
Speaking on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast, she recalled: "I graduated from college in 1979, and so I started working in television news in the early '80s.
"I was an intern at a radio station in Washington, and I walked in, I went back to say hello because I was graduating, and I was kind of trying to maintain relationships. I wasn't quite sure what I was gonna do.
"And the general manager of the station - I went and said hi, and he said, 'Are you on the pill?' And I said, 'Excuse me?' He said, 'Well, your breasts look much bigger than they did last summer.' Can you imagine? ...
"I remember my whole body - you know when something happens and you get hot?"
