Joan Lunden:
A New Appreciation for Life
BY SHERYL NANCE-NASH
Joan Lunden always wanted to be a doctor,
like her father. She also thought about
teaching for a time. When she became an
award-winning journalist and bestselling author,
she fulfilled her earlier dreams, through
her work as a motivational speaker and a women's
health and wellness advocate.
Long before Lunden was a household name,
she started humbly as a trainee for KCRA-TV's
news department in 1973. Within two years she
was a weather person, reporter, and anchor for
the station. Next stop, New York City, for a job
at WABC-TV and then Good Morning America.
Her nearly two decades as a television cohost are
legendary.
She reported from 26 countries, covered five
presidents, several Olympic Games, and told us
how to care for our homes, families, and health.
Life after GMA has included, among other positions,
working as a special correspondent on the
TODAY Show, host of the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and CBS television station’s series Your
Health, and starting in January, she’ll be at the
helm of PBS’ Second Opinion. She created a women’s
summer getaway camp in Maine, designed a
line of home goods, and wrote 12 books.
She’ll tell you quickly where her heart is. Health
is her passion. She knows firsthand about
health challenges. In 2014, Lunden was
diagnosed with triple-negative breast
cancer, which required chemotherapy,
surgery, and radiation. She turned
her experience into a teachable
moment. She shared her cancer
battle in her memoir Had I
Known: A Memoir of Survival.
She advocates for
cancer patients on Capitol
Hill and elsewhere
and engages with the
cancer community
through social media
and her website,
joanlunden.com.
At 70, the wife and
mother of seven,
including two sets
of teenage twins,
is hardly slowing
down. Earlier this
year, she published
her latest book, Why Did I Come Into This Room?
A Candid Conversation About Aging. Her take
on the female aging process is as informative as
it is entertaining. She keeps it real, talking about
the guts and glory of growing older.
Long Island Press spoke with Lunden, who will
host Schneps Media’s virtual Health & Fiscal
Wellness Expo on Dec. 3, to chat about her career,
family, women’s health, aging and more.
What was it like in the
beginning of your
career in such
a competitive
industry?
I was
a young
w o m a n
on local
television
news in
New York
when I got
a call from
my agent
saying that I
had gotten an
offer to cohost
Good Morning
America. Twenty minutes later I got a call from
my gynecologist telling me that I was pregnant
with my first child. This would be new territory.
I was one of the first anchors to appear pregnant
on television. The network was great. When I
told them that I was breastfeeding my daughter
Jamie and that she needed to be with me, I got
a dressing room for her next to mine. It had a
crib, and a baby nurse would look after her. She
was even with me when she was 1 year old, and
I had to cover the royal wedding of Diana and
Charles. I felt like I was helping make things
change in the workplace for women. ABC got
a lot of letters from viewers in support of
what they saw happening for me. But also
there was the realization that while it
was wonderful that my workplace
was accommodating, what about
other women? This set me on a path
to be an advocate for women. Earlier
this year I testified before Congress
urging them to support the Family
and Medical Insurance Leave Act.
As a wife and mother of seven, what’s
your advice to women about work-life
balance? Don’t feel guilty. Guilt is the
bane of working women. We’re always
asking ourselves, “Am I at the right place
at the right time?” When people ask my
three older children what
it was like when I was
working at GMA, I
love what they
say: “That she
showed us
that we
c a n
Joan Lunden recently published Why Did I Come Into This Room? A Candid Conversation About Aging. 24 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ December 2020
/joanlunden.com
