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Katie Couric, 69, Says ‘Several Hours’ Will ‘Always Be Missing’ After Amnesia Episode
The journalist wrote that doctors ruled out a stroke before diagnosing transient global amnesia
Katie Couric wrote that “several hours” of a Saturday will “always be missing” after she experienced transient global amnesia.
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Key takeaways
- Katie Couric wrote that she lost hours of memory during what began as an ordinary Saturday while she was in Aspen, Colo.
- Couric said she could not correctly name the month, year or the current president.
- Transient global amnesia is temporary, the Mayo Clinic says, but sudden memory loss needs immediate medical care.
In a July 6 Substack essay titled “The Day I’ll Never Remember,” Katie Couric, 69, described a frightening episode she experienced just after speaking on two panels at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
The longtime journalist lost several hours after what turned out to be transient global amnesia (TGA), a sudden episode of memory loss that left her unable to answer basic questions about the present. She wrote that she remembered heading to the festival with her husband, John Molner, 63, but nothing from the panels that afternoon.
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“It was Saturday, June 27, 2026,” she wrote. “But when I was asked the month, the year, and who was president, I got them wrong. I wasn’t sure of the month. I thought it was 2024. And I believed Joe Biden was president. Let me explain.”
The morning had been ordinary. According to her essay, Molner went to work out, and Couric walked into town, stopping at a farmers market before getting ready for the Aspen Ideas Festival.
She remembered choosing her outfit. She remembered Molner driving her to the Aspen Institute campus, where he wanted to stop for hot dogs.
“That’s the last thing I remember,” she wrote.
Couric went on to moderate a panel on artificial intelligence and to appear on another about journalism’s future.
“I remember nothing from either panel,” Couric wrote.
She added that she had “no idea what we talked about, or of what occurred when the panels ended.”
Molner wrote in the post that he “noticed nothing unusual in the conversation or Katie’s role” during the panels. After he stepped away while Couric spoke with audience members, an intern found him and said, “Katie wasn’t feeling well.”
Molner wrote that he first thought Couric might be dehydrated or dealing with altitude sickness. She was taken to the Aspen Valley Health hospital, where she could not remember the names of some of her grandchildren or her daughter Carrie’s boyfriend, according to the post.
Doctors performed an MRI to determine whether Couric had had a stroke. They determined she had not and diagnosed her with TGA, according to the post.
The Mayo Clinic describes TGA as a sudden episode of confusion in someone who is otherwise awake and alert. During an episode, a person cannot form new memories and may not remember where they are or how they got there.
Dr. David Sealy, a family and sports medicine physician, told AARP in 2025 that he experienced TGA himself while skiing in Colorado. He said sudden memory loss in an older adult should be evaluated quickly because it can be hard at first to tell TGA from a stroke.
“The hardest thing about it is that it’s an older age group,” Sealy said. “It’s harder to discern whether the person is having a stroke or the person is having a TGA.”
Brain health matters
Couric’s memory scare is a reminder to take sudden confusion seriously, but brain health is also something you can support every day. AARP’s Staying Sharp offers articles, activities, recipes and tools built around the six pillars of brain health.
The condition most often affects people in middle or older age, according to the Mayo Clinic. The confusion usually fades over a few hours and is gone within 24 hours.
The Mayo Clinic says that TGA itself is not dangerous but that sudden memory loss needs immediate medical attention because more serious conditions can cause similar symptoms.
Couric wrote in her essay that a doctor told her the memory loss would be temporary. By the next day, she wrote, her memory had returned.
“While this was a freaky occurrence, it could have been much more serious,” Couric wrote. “So ultimately, I’m relieved — even though several hours of a Saturday in June will always be missing for me.”
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
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