Katie Couric Admits She Regrets Not Having More Children, Speaks On Aging and Plastic Surgery

(Photo : Good Housekeeping magazine)
No subject is off-limits in Katie Couric's interview with Good Housekeeping magazine.

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Although Katie Couric, 55, has had a successful broadcast journalism career and premiers her new talk show "Katie" Sept. 10, she still regrets one thing: not having more children.

In the September issue of Good Housekeeping, the former "TODAY" co-anchor spoke on raising daughters Ellie, 21, and Carrie, 16, and opened up about aging. (Couric's husband, Jay Monahan, died from colon cancer in 1998. Currently, she is dating financier John Molner, 49.)

"I love being around my kids. I'm not a particularly solitary person. I like a big, chaotic household -- noise, commotion, laughter!" Couric told Good Housekeeping. "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."

Though Carrie still lives with Couric (Ellie is away at college), at times, she feels like an empty-nester. She said that her apartment is "awfully quiet" and notes, "Carrie can be a typical 16-year-old girl."

With fame does not come immunity to the tumultuous teenage years. "They're very proficient at the surgical strike, [knowing] just where that tender spot is," she said.

As much as Couric might yearn for more children, she knows it is not a biological possibility.

She spoke of menopause candidly. "I was happy to stave it off until I was 55," she said with a laugh. "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."

But menopause makes her "child lust" even more intense. "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."

And for her, getting older isn't always easy to digest. "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."

Couric embraces the changes that come with age with exercise and humor. Though she has always exercised, she didn't truly commit to being fit until now. Her "chipmunk cheeks," she claimed, are not as prominent as they once were. "Now I can see my cheekbones for the first time. You know, they say as you get older you have to decide between [maintaining] your butt or your face," she joked. "Clearly, I've made my choice."

The subject of wrinkles and plastic surgery was also not off-limits. "The beauty of aging is, the more wrinkles you get, the fewer you can see," she said. Couric added that she's "not opposed to people enhancing their looks as long as they maintain their individuality. Sometimes they start to look like clones."

What's her secret for remaining youthful? "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."