Find out what it was like to be in the room where it happened — or, walking through it.
Katie married John Molner in 2014, and if you’re an avid Wake-Up Call reader, he probably already feels like an old friend. You’ve checked out his office style essentials, learned how he likes to spend his weekends, and seen pics of him at Katie’s daughter’s wedding.
But if you read Katie’s upcoming memoir, Going There, you’ll probably learn way more about him than you ever imagined. The book delves into the beginnings of their relationship, the terrifying health scare he endured, and details on how he helped Katie cope with the downfall of her former co-anchor.
What’s it like to be part of someone else’s memoir? We were pretty eager to find out, so we went straight to the man himself. Here are John’s thoughts on the book, the experience of reading about your wife’s ex-boyfriends, and what it’s like for a self-described “private person” to suddenly find parts of his life out in the open.
KCM: What was your reaction when Katie said she wanted to write a memoir?
John Molner: Honestly, I wasn’t sure she would follow through with it. I didn’t know if she was serious or just talking. She collects so many things — trunks of old letters, documents, furniture, photos — and she’s had an amazing life. So I was hopeful that she would do it, but she’s so busy. I didn’t know if she had time to commit herself to doing it at the level she did. But I definitely thought she should write a memoir because I knew it would be a great book.
KCM: Do you consider yourself a private person? Did you worry about having all the details of your life put out there?
JM: I do think of myself as a private person. But Katie’s a public figure, and she likes to share her life. I did have some concerns about what she was going to share. But I also thought that for her to write an important book, she had to be willing to be authentic about her journey. And that’s what she’s done. There’s no point in writing a book like this unless you’re ready to be honest with yourself. And I think she absolutely did that.
KCM: What was it like to be present while she was working on it?
JM: I was only present at the periphery. Whenever she started working on it, I went to go play golf. It was her personal journey — we have enough areas of our life that intersect. I was definitely curious about it, though. Sometimes she’d talk to me about a certain chapter she was writing. I’m not the focus of this book. I’m a small chapter too far in the back, I think. [laughs] Ultimately, it was really a project she took on with her amazing contributors, Lucy and Adriana. When they would take over the dining room table, I went as far away as I could, and let them do their thing.
KCM: Did she ever bounce ideas off you?
JM: We’d have conversations about certain sections, but I didn’t make suggestions or anything — I knew they weren’t going to listen to me. I think Katie had a very clear idea of the story she wanted to tell, and how she wanted to tell it. The book is really in her voice. It sounds like her on the page.
There was really no point where we thought, How does this or that make her look? She knows she’s a public person and her journey touches other people, some of whom are well-known. I think she was careful to be fair, but to be honest, too. And I think she did an amazing job of walking that line. I didn’t have any advice other than to be authentic. But Katie was doing that anyway. She didn’t need my advice on that.
KCM: Most people don’t ever get to experience being, essentially, a character in a memoir. What does that feel like?
JM: I do think of myself as my own person — am I wrong? [laughs] But I’m proud to be part of Katie’s life. And I understand that more people know who I am because I’m married to her. I try to do my own things, but I’m proud of Katie. And I am a character in the book, and maybe a character on her Instagram from time to time, but I don’t take it too seriously.
KCM: Do you think the way you were depicted in the book is pretty accurate to your personality?
JM: Well, I’m not going to sue her for how I was represented in the book or anything. [laughs] Those moments she mentions are vignettes — experiences we had together. And they ring true. I think one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Katie is that she has a great sense of humor. We like goofing around and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. And even when she’s mad at me, she’s always pretty quick to laugh about something, which is nice. There are some, uh, intense stories about me in that book. I had some health struggles, which Katie talks about in the book. She helped me through that chapter of my life. But yeah, we’ve had a lot of funny times together and she does a good job of recounting some of those esoteric things.
KCM: Regarding your health, how does it feel now that the world will know what you went through?
JM: I guess I hope they appreciate me more now that they know they could’ve lost me! I mean, it was a scary time and Katie is good in crisis mode, even as spread thin as she is. She’s a people-pleaser, which is the biggest difference between us. She likes to please people and I’m happy if I do, but it doesn’t drive my day. But it was nice that she took care of me the way she did, though I’m sorry I had to be sick enough to be taken care of.
I try to lead my life with gratitude. And if you’re lucky enough to survive a health scare and that experience doesn’t give you a little bit more gratitude, maybe something’s wrong. Reading it now, that all seems like a distant memory, though.
KCM: Katie talks about her exes and her bad dates in the book. What was it like reading about her other relationships?
JM: It was occasionally a little too much information for me. There were times where I was like, Seriously, do we have go there? But it was almost like Taylor Swift writing about an old boyfriend — it’s part of the creative process. Still, some of those things I read through pretty quickly. I mean, I didn’t want to dive into every detail of her past relationships any more than I want her to know all the details of mine.
KCM: Did you learn anything new about her from reading the book?
JM: For sure. I certainly learned more about her family and her upbringing. I knew how important her parents are to her and how close her family was. But I didn’t know all the little details about the family that you learn in the book, or some parts of her relationship with Jay. And I knew the broad strokes, but the book even brought into focus for me some of the challenges she had in her career.
KCM: Did the book affect the way you see her?
JM: Watching her write it, I was amazed by Katie’s capacity for work. She created this beautifully written memoir while helping us build a company. And during the same period, she was doing documentaries, doing big interviews, writing other pieces, doing personal appearances. But I’m glad she threw herself into the book so hard, because I think anything less wouldn’t have done justice to the story.
I was single for years before I met Katie, and I was starting to think about what I might look for in someone if I were going to get remarried. And I wanted somebody who had their own activities, their own passions, whether that meant she was a lawyer or a doctor or a stamp collector. So be careful what you wish for, I guess. But yeah, Katie’s had a big life. That didn’t intimidate me, but it fascinated me and I enjoyed it. She loves doing what she’s doing and she’s good at it. So I’m lucky.
KCM: Is there anything about the book you’d change?
JM: I mean, she could’ve written about me more. I’m kidding.
