Joan Lunden Makes Rare Appearance on ‘Today’ With Daughter Jamie Krauss Hess for Heartfelt Chat

Viewers were shocked to see Joan Lunden appear on Today with her eldest daughter, Jamie Krauss Hess, on Friday, March 22. The journalist previously served as a correspondent on the show.

Joan, 73, first announced her Today appearance in a post on her Instagram account on Thursday, March 21.

“Tune in Friday morning to the 3rd Hour of the TODAY Show (around 9am) to see my daughter Jamie Krauss Hess (@nycfitfam) and me appearing with @Al Roker Dylan Dreyer and Craig Melvin to discuss Jamie’s new show, The Gratitudeology Podcast!,” she wrote. “We’ll be sharing details from Season One, including the episode when I joined Jamie to discuss her comeback story. It was a long-overdue conversation that not only gave us closure as mother and daughter, but revealed the deep sense of gratitude that led Jamie to a profound transformation.”

Joan shares Jamie and daughters Lindsay and Sarah with ex-husband Michael A. Krauss. Jamie shared a behind the scenes look while getting ready for the Today episode in her Instagram Stories. She also shared some throwback photos with her mom on set over the years.

“Feels weird seeing former Good Morning America anchor Joan Lunden on the competition (#TodayShow)” one person wrote on Twitter after the appearance. After that, she joined Today as a special correspondent in 2014 but has been living a rather quiet life in recent years.

During the segment, Craig Melvin referred to Joan as “morning television royalty.” Jamie discussed how she turned her life around and got help after going through a dark period.

Joan previously served as an official cohost on Good Morning America from 1980 to 1997. She reflected on how much the world of morning talk shows has changed since then.

“That time of morning is very different than any other time of the day when it comes to television. It’s a very intimate time of day,” Joan shared about broadcasting in a December 2022 interview with Yahoo! Life. “People aren’t dressed. Kids are running around. And here we were in their house with them. So, the relationship that ensued was almost familial … To this day, people will come up to me sometimes and, like, throw their arms around me … and sometimes they’ll say, ‘I love you in the morning!’ I haven’t been on that show for 20 years.”

Joan is also a mom to kids Kate, Max, Kimberly and Jack, whom she shares with husband Jeff Konigsberg.

“It’s energizing to me,” she told Closer of parenthood in May 2015. “I’m a person who just has always taken on life at full speed. So I think that I was wise in my choice.”