Katie Couric is giving fans a closer look at her longtime East Hampton home, and one of its standout pieces has a connection to one of America’s most recognizable first ladies.
The journalist’s newly renovated Hamptons retreat features a dresser that once belonged to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which Couric purchased at a Sotheby’s auction of the former first lady’s estate. The antique is among the personal treasures displayed throughout the home, which Couric has owned for 20 years.
In a recent tour of the property for ELLE Decor, Couric opened up about the renovation and the meaningful objects she has collected over the years.
“This dresser belonged to Jackie Kennedy,” Couric told the publication, explaining that she purchased it alongside a watercolor that now hangs in her daughter Ellie’s bedroom. The dresser also holds a collection of ashtrays that belonged to her parents, who collected them during their travels.
The home is filled with other sentimental pieces, including her childhood piano, her mother’s needlepoint, and antiques she purchased with her late first husband, Jay Monahan. Couric and Monahan bought a house in Millbrook, New York, before his death in 1998, and some of the furniture they collected together eventually found a home in East Hampton.
“He used to joke that he wanted to start a column called Mantiques and write about the stuff he bought,” Couric says of her late husband. “He collected a lot of military memorabilia and was very interested in the Civil War. I have his collection of Civil War-era bugles and a letterbox that belonged to Joshua Chamberlain, a Union Army hero, from when he was president of Bowdoin.”
Couric purchased her East Hampton property in 2006, when her daughters were 14 and 10. She later married her second husband, John Molner, in the backyard.
Last year, Couric decided to renovate the home with the help of interior designer Saffron Case, opening up the kitchen to the dining and family rooms and adding a glass door to bring in a more expansive view. The updated space now accommodates family gatherings, summer visits from her daughters and grandchildren, and her work recording podcasts and conducting interviews.
“I still have a lot of stuff that I should probably part ways with, but I’m extremely sentimental and if something was in my parents’ dining room, it just crushed me not to have it,” Couric says of doing her best to preserve the memories woven throughout the house. “I love having reminders of my family and our past throughout the house. It gives me a wonderful sense of continuity.”