Connie Chung Is Fierce and Funny at 78

It sounds like your sense of humor was helpful when dealing with “the boys” in the newsroom.

My modus operandi was to get them before they got me. When I could tell that something [racist or sexist] was about to be uttered, I would stage a preemptive strike and get to the bad side faster and funnier than they could. It would truly leave them speechless. They just didn’t know what to say if I dropped an f-bomb — this petite lotus blossom looking as if I were a little China doll.

Is there anyone you’d love to interview right now?

Putin. I would have to interview him through a translator, and that’s difficult to do because there’s such a delay in understanding what each person is saying. But there’s just a banquet full of questions that I would put on his plate and not let him dominate the conversation, as all politicians do.

What has been your focus in the years since you stopped working, almost 20 years ago?

I was actually raising my son [Matthew, 29, whom Chung and Povich adopted in 1995]. All during my career, I was pretty much just concentrating on my career. And so it worked out perfectly for me. I turned 50 when he was 2 months old, and we got him when he was less than a day old, and just the most beautiful thing.

You and Maury have been married for almost 40 years. What makes your marriage strong?

It is very funny, because we are polar opposites, and yet we share a sense of humor. He’s a very funny person, and when I would come home from a bad day at the office, he could talk me off the ledge like no one could. His best bit of advice, which applied so perfectly to anchor people, was: Don’t take yourself seriously. Take your work seriously. I worked with so many anchormen who took themselves so seriously, it was comical. I mean, you couldn’t fit their heads in Madison Square Garden, even if there wasn’t a game there.

What are you doing now to stay healthy?

I just turned 78, and it’s really hard not to have a creaky body. I think the only way we can avoid creaky bodies is to move. I walk, exercise, do squats, lift weights. It’s just so important to do something every day.

Have you read any great books lately?

I binged memoirs when I was writing. My husband is a voracious reader, and he recommended Personal History by Katharine Graham, the legendary publisher of The Washington Post. It was a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, and what I found is that she faced mountains of sexism but never cried foul. I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. So by the time I sat down and wrote my memoir, I thought, That’s the tone I want to strike. If I throw anybody under the bus, I’ll do it ever so gently.

How do you feel about growing older?

I despise aging. My face is hanging down, and it used to be so nice and perky. My eyes have drooped, and my mouth naturally turns down. My husband is always saying, “Why are you so down?” I’m not unhappy, but when you have resting bitch face, it just goes down. And then I lost my waist. I lost my memory and my waist. I left them on I-95 somewhere. Oh, and I’ve shrunk! I’ve lost 3 inches, so I come up to everyone’s navel. So depressing.

What’s something people would be surprised to know about you?

I have a strain of weed [marijuana] named after me. Connie Chung weed. I’m easy to grow. I create a very lovely flower. And you know what? You can get me online. Not that I’ve ever tried, because I didn’t think that would be very good for my reputation.