The 69-year-old journalist detailed the “freaky” episode in a July 6 post on Substack.

Katie Couric suffers stroke scare, diagnosed with temporary amnesia

The 69-year-old journalist detailed the “freaky” episode in a July 6 post on Substack.

By Kathleen Perricone

July 8, 2026 12:38 a.m. ET

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Katie Couric on ‘Today’ in 2024. Credit:

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

- Katie Couric reveals a “freaky” incident raised concerns she’d suffered a stroke.

- Her husband noticed she seemed “out of it” and took her to a hospital, where she couldn’t remember the date or name of the president.

- A stroke was ruled out, and Couric was diagnosed with temporary memory loss.

Katie Couric has revealed a “freaky” incident that was diagnosed as temporary memory loss.

The 69-year-old journalist recounted the health scare in a Substack post titled, “The Day I’ll Never Remember.” June 27, 2026, began like any other as she walked to the farmer’s market in Aspen to pick up an iced coffee, she explained.

“I bought some beautiful peaches and nectarines, a big bag of kettle corn and a cute straw hat I really didn’t need,” Couric wrote. “I headed back, ate a bowl of cereal with one of the peaches, and got dressed for an afternoon at the Aspen Ideas Festival,” where she was scheduled to speak at two panels. “I decided to wear a white linen suit, a navy and white knit sleeveless shirt, and my new hat.”

When her husband, financier John Molner, returned home from the gym, the two drove to the campus of the Aspen Institute, where Couric was excited to hit the hot dog stand for lunch.

“That’s the last thing I remember,” she revealed.

Katie Couric with her husband John Molner.

Michael Loccisano/Getty

Couric completed both of her panel appearances, but remembers “nothing” from either one.

“I have no idea what we talked about or of what occurred when the panels ended,” she explained.

As Molner recalled, his wife suddenly felt weak and dizzy and seemed “out of it,” so he brought her straight to Aspen Valley Hospital.

During her initial examination, doctors quizzed Couric about the date and current president.

“I got them wrong,” she recalled. “I wasn’t sure of the month. I thought it was 2024. And I believed Joe Biden was president.” More concerning, she couldn’t even remember the existence of her newborn granddaughter, Virginia.

As the hospital staff initiated “stroke protocol,” Molner noticed his wife “reintroduced herself to the nurses every time they came into the room,” he wrote in Couric’s Substack post.

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Fortunately, an MRI ruled out a stroke. Further evaluation resulted in a diagnosis of transient global amnesia, “which means you lost your short term memory,” Couric’s doctor explained to her in a note. “It will return tomorrow. You are safe!”

In the accompanying article from the *New England Journal of Medicine*, she read more about TGA: “The typical case is characterized by a sudden, complete inability to retain new information, lasting for several hours, in a middle-aged or older person, with preservation of alert and all other cognitive functions.”

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Why did this happen to Couric?

“The cause seems to be as mysterious as the brain itself,” she wrote. “Someone described it as my brain failing to hit the record button.”

“While this was a freaky occurrence, it could have been much more serious,” Couric concluded, reflecting on the incident. “So ultimately, I’m relieved — even though several hours of a Saturday in June will always be missing for me.”

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