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Katie Couric says CNN knew about Zucker's controversial affair

Couric: "I’ve wondered about the nature of their relationship, but I do know, that it made me uncomfortable"

February 3, 2022 1:51pm

Updated: February 3, 2022 1:54pm

Katie Couric, the renowned former “Today” star, said that many of her colleagues “turned a blind eye to inappropriate behavior” by former CNN president Jeff Zucker and network senior executive Allison Gollust, whose romantic relationship led to his resignation on Wednesday.

“I worked with Jeff Zucker for many years at NBC and, later, on my talk show. He was a talented and energetic producer. His resignation took me by surprise,” Couric said in a statement.

“I’ve also known Allison Gollust since my days at the TODAY show. I’ve wondered about the nature of their relationship, but I do know, as I wrote in my memoir ‘Going There,’ that it made me uncomfortable,” she added.

“It seems their colleagues and the media at large turned a blind eye to inappropriate behavior.”

Zucker resigned as CNN president on Wednesday after failing to acknowledge a “consensual relationship” with Gollust, CNN’s executive VP and chief marketing officer.

Couric, who worked under Zucker in the early 2000s, wrote about the now infamous couple in her memoir “Going There.”

According to Couric, Zucker and Gollust were “joined at the hip” and even lived a floor away from each other in the same apartment building – where they both lived separately with their spouses.

“(Gollust) and her husband and kids had moved into the apartment right above Jeff and Caryn’s — everyone who heard about their cozy arrangement thought it was super strange,” Couric wrote, referring to Zucker’s then-wife.

“By that point, Caryn had become a close friend and it made me really uncomfortable,” she wrote.