Living Life To
The Fullest

Joan Lunden continues to break ground as a mother, newscaster and adventurer

by Aimee Bernstein

Joan Lunden is a trailblazer whose work reflects her life. As the longest-serving host of Good Morning America, from 1980 to 1997, her appeal then and now is that she represents Everywoman. She understands what women who deal with the push-pulls of family and career experience. Her life has been about discovering an array of positive choices and offering them to others.

Lunden joined Good Morning America in 1976 as a feature news and consumer reporter. As her popularity soared, her stints as a substitute co-host quickly led to a promotion as daily host. Her contract caused controversy because of the childcare clauses she added, which allowed her to bring her children to work and required the network to provide a nursery. Network executives warned her not to discuss her pregnancy during the press conference announcing her hosting assignment; they feared the public wouldn’t take her seriously. Rather than succumbing to their fears, Lunden did nothing to hide her pregnancy on the program and chose instead to share her experiences and concerns as a mother. In the late 1980s, this was a radical choice. “I had a lot of women write me and say ‘thank you’ for showing my husband, my boss, that our brains do not get smaller as our stomachs get bigger,” she said in an interview with Deborah Norville on MSNBC. Her determination to balance work and home generated a ripple effect that changed corporate policies throughout America.

Lunden’s willingness to take risks transformed the role of women in morning news programs. She showed that a woman could be smart and personable, as well as athletic and adventuresome. Her many on-air escapades included climbing and rappelling Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier, bungee-jumping off a 143-foot bridge, navigating whitewater rapids in Georgia and flying an F-16 jet. According to Entertainment Weekly magazine’s national viewer poll, her authenticity made her “television’s favorite morning host” during her years at GMA.

Lunden had three children with former husband Michael Krauss. Her experiences in raising their three young daughters led her to write several books on parenting. She also hosted two television series’ on parenting, including the award-winning Mother’s Day on Lifetime Cable and her own syndicated series entitled Everyday with Joan Lunden. In addition, she produced a workout video and two cookbooks during her tenure at GMA. In 2005, in collaboration with Dr. Myron Winick, she co-authored the best-seller “Growing Up Healthy: Protecting Your Child From Diseases Now Through Adulthood,” which focused on the link between childhood obesity and the development of adult chronic illnesses.

Before leaving GMA, Joan and her husband of 13 years announced their separation and eventually divorced. Once again, using the challenges of her own life to help others, she wrote two books on finding the opportunities inherent in change.

After GMA, Joan created and hosted a TV series on A&E called Behind Closed Doors. The weekly undercover reporting series brought viewers inside places they usually did not have access to including the CIA, the gold vaults of The U.S. Treasury and the private warehouse of the Smithsonian Institution. For her in-depth coverage of the armed forces, the U.S. Military awarded her the Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service.

In 2000, Joan married children’s summer camp owner, Jeff Konigsberg, a man almost 10 years her junior. After numerous failed attempts at in-vitro fertilization, the couple welcomed twins delivered by a surrogate mother. Joan was 54 at the time. Her age and her decision to use a surrogate sparked controversy. In 2005, the same surrogate delivered a second set of twins for the couple that expanded Joan’s family to seven children.

Today, at 57, Joan is busier than ever with her family and two new ventures. The first, Camp Reveille, provides respite, soul-nourishing and “play therapy” for busy women. The camp—where “there is no requirement, no expectations, only choices”—is Lunden’s haven for women to relish some “me” time and create new friendships. The women at Camp Reveille have the opportunity to engage in such activities as hiking, water skiing, volleyball, arts and crafts, archery, yoga, Pilates, zumba dance classes and movie nights. They can even participate in an Indian fire council—just as they may have done when they went to summer camp as children.

An ever-present face on the TV screen, Joan returns to television this March as host of DIRECTV’s Hometown Heroes. The show spotlights people who are making a difference in their community through acts of extraordinary kindness. Each week, the 30-minute news magazine program features three inspirational stories, including Operation Gratitude, which provides care packages to soldiers, and God’s Katrina Kitchen, which provides thousands of meals a day to relief workers and victims of the hurricane. The program premieres on Sunday, March 30 at 6 p.m. EST.