<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" ROSEMARY ELLIS It&amp;#039;s been two years since you left the co-anchor spot on the Today show. On the stress-o-meter, how much less stressed are you now? MEREDITH VIEIRA I&amp;#039;m less stressed in the sense that I&amp;#039;m less tired. I don&amp;#039;t feel like I&amp;#039;m operating on empty all the time, with only adrenaline getting me through the day. So in that sense, it&amp;#039;s great, but I have a lot of different forces bouncing off me on a regular basis now. Strangely enough, I thought leaving the Today show would somehow make life easier, but there&amp;#039;s something to be said for having one job as opposed to a bazillion. RE Right, having your schedule so prescribed\u2026 MV Yes; that way you can say, &amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t\u2026.&amp;quot; I couldn&amp;#039;t do events in the evening, for example, when I was doing the Today show. And once that ended, all those people I&amp;#039;d said no to\u2014well, I had to start saying yes. And so I booked myself a little bit crazy in the process. RE So do you feel like you decompressed at all? MV Finally I did. For the first five weeks afterward, Richard [Cohen, her husband] and I went to Cape Cod. It was very hard for me to disconnect from the Today show, even though it was my decision. That first day I wasn&amp;#039;t there was hard. I thought, OK, the second day will be easier, and it really wasn&amp;#039;t. I finally said, &amp;quot;I think I need to get out of New York.&amp;quot; So we went to the Cape, and that was great. Just by ourselves. I felt a little bit guilty about that, to be honest; about a week in, I thought, We should have the kids here. And Rich said, &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t you get it? They actually have lives, and they want to be here, but not necessarily when we&amp;#039;re here.&amp;quot; And I ended up having a great time. We hadn&amp;#039;t been alone like that, I guess, since our kids were born. It was great for us to connect, and I really was removed enough to separate myself and stop obsessing, which was a good thing. RE But you&amp;#039;re still a special correspondent for NBC News, and you did the Olympics\u2026 MV Of course I wanted to do that\u2014it was such a great opportunity. NBC&amp;#039;s been so good to me that I thought, I&amp;#039;m going to keep one foot in the door; that&amp;#039;s the smart thing to do while I&amp;#039;m figuring out what is next. RE And you also decided to let go of hosting Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. MV Yes. With me, it&amp;#039;s always timing. I had 11 really good years. I thought, I&amp;#039;d rather go out on top. We&amp;#039;ve got the two Emmys; I loved the people on the show. And I also wanted to open up the door for other opportunities. RE Not ones that start at 2:30 in the morning, right? MV Exactly. I think there may be opportunities ahead with a different schedule. It&amp;#039;s fun to explore. RE What do you have time for now that you didn&amp;#039;t have time for before? MV I see much, much more of my friends. One of the things I love to do most is walk a lot with a dear friend. We walk along the Hudson River, and I hadn&amp;#039;t been able to do that pretty much for five years. There&amp;#039;s a group of women I&amp;#039;ve known since I was little\u2014we all went to school together, and several of them have settled in this area. I&amp;#039;ve seen much more of them. And they comment on it: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s nice to be back in your orbit.&amp;quot; I got caught up in the whole Today show world, and when I could have made time, I didn&amp;#039;t. I was tired, I was this, I was that. The friendships you have are the things you carry forever, and I&amp;#039;m lucky that my friends stood by me. I really cherish them. RE Do you think that lack of availability affected your friendships? MV Not my real friendships, no. Richard says that it&amp;#039;s probably that I&amp;#039;m desperate to please people. That I always want people to think I&amp;#039;m a good egg. RE And I recall your saying you wanted your home to reflect that, too; you said you had big plans for decluttering your house\u2026 MV My house is a mess. I go to clean my closet, and I just keep putting it off and putting it off. I was going to organize all our photos.Initially I was going to do it for Ben&amp;#039;s graduation; I was going to compile all the photos into books. That never happened. Now Gabe is graduating in June\u2014it ain&amp;#039;t happening. Maybe when I have grandkids\u2026 RE Are there other home projects you&amp;#039;ve tackled? Have you learned to cook? Is there anything you planned to do that you were actually able to find the time for? MV I thought I&amp;#039;d have more time than I actually had, and then I had a bunch of interviews, so that set me back. And I got very, very sick at the Olympics. The day after the opening ceremony, my left thumb started to turn red, and it hurt a little bit. The next day it was swollen. Then it got really big, so I went to the infirmary, and the guy actually cut it open a little bit to see if he could release the pressure. He gave me an antibiotic and said, &amp;quot;You know, I wouldn&amp;#039;t even take this yet, because I&amp;#039;m not sure you have any infection.&amp;quot; The following day was August 2\u2014I know because it was Gabe&amp;#039;s birthday, and he was working the Olympics as an intern; we threw him a little surprise party. My thumb was so big\u2014at least double its normal size\u2014and red. If I even began to lower my hand, the pain was excruciating. I did an on-air piece, holding my thumb up, and was almost in tears. I went to Gabe&amp;#039;s party and said, &amp;quot;I want to go back to the doctor; I don&amp;#039;t feel well.&amp;quot; RE How scary! I hadn&amp;#039;t heard any of this!  MV I went back to the infirmary. They took one look at the thumb and said, &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve got to get you to the hospital.&amp;quot; They didn&amp;#039;t know what it was. So I went to this hospital where they put me in what was called the hospice center. I thought, What&amp;#039;s going on?! That&amp;#039;s not comforting. They kept offering me tea, and I thought, Oh, there&amp;#039;s probably nothing else they can give me, since I&amp;#039;m dying. Nobody was saying anything. I was freaking out, and then of course\u2014this is so me\u2014I didn&amp;#039;t tell people. I told Gabe, but I didn&amp;#039;t tell Richard [who was back at home]. And I guess Richard didn&amp;#039;t find out until the next day, when Gabe told him, &amp;quot;Mom&amp;#039;s in the hospital.&amp;quot; Richard said, &amp;quot;Why didn&amp;#039;t you communicate with me?&amp;quot; RE And what did this all turn out to be? MV They never figured it out. They ended up operating on the finger and making a larger incision, and giving me all kinds of antibiotics. When I got back to the U.S., they cultured it again and thought I&amp;#039;d contracted three strains of drug-resistant bacteria. We never could figure it out\u2014there was no cut, nothing. I had done a piece with an eccentric who had built a chair that floated. We were in the Thames River, which can be kind of dirty, and my hand was in the water. Maybe there was something there? I have no idea. Shortly after that, I went to see the doctor because I found a lump in my throat. I was worried, and he said, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m going to send you to an oncologist, who will operate on you tomorrow and see what this is.&amp;quot; And I could tell by the way my doctor responded that he was concerned. And when he got concerned, then I got concerned. And life sort of froze. OK, well, let&amp;#039;s say it is cancer. Are we going to get it? Is there something more here? Though I was trying to think positively, it was almost like, Why shouldn&amp;#039;t it be me?It happens all the time to people. I was very scared. After the surgery, the doctor said, &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t think it&amp;#039;s cancer, but I&amp;#039;ll let you know.&amp;quot; Three or four days later, he called me to let me know that it wasn&amp;#039;t cancer. I was so excited, I was jumping up and down around the house and slammed my foot into the bed. And that&amp;#039;s how I broke two of my toes! RE What a difficult time for you! I know the last time we talked, you said once you were out of the Today show schedule, you wanted to understand who you were and reexamine your beliefs. So hearing this makes me think: Have you had the chance to do that? Did it affect how you faced your health crisis? MV I think I&amp;#039;m stronger than even I thought I was. When facing that kind of situation, I was able to pull something out from inside\u2014maybe it is faith\u2014that allowed me to stay calm. I think that&amp;#039;s important because I tend to be a bit hysterical. But in this case I wasn&amp;#039;t at all, which is sort of surprising for me. Next:   RE I was talking to somebody not long ago who had taken time off and done a lot of soul-searching. And she told me, &amp;quot;My faith has gotten a face-lift.&amp;quot; Have you experienced something like that? MV I&amp;#039;m somewhere in the midst of that. I didn&amp;#039;t have any great revelations, except that I probably need work in my life more than I might have admitted before. It&amp;#039;s funny\u2014I turned 59 in December, and I love birthdays. Love them. I don&amp;#039;t care if people know my age, never have. This past birthday was the first time I was a little bit low. I don&amp;#039;t know if it was the anticipation of 60\u2014maybe it does mean more than I&amp;#039;ve admitted to myself. Because, really, you&amp;#039;re heading into that last leg. RE It&amp;#039;s a sobering number. MV Right. And what are you going to do in that part of your life to make it as meaningful as possible for you and those around you? You know, I thought I was going to make a clean break [from the path I knew] and try something entirely different; now I&amp;#039;m not sure that&amp;#039;s going to happen. I&amp;#039;m working on figuring it out. RE Do you pray a lot? MV I do. I come as close to it as possible in nature. I try to hike or walk every day, and I&amp;#039;m alone with my thoughts and I pray. RE So when you had the scare with the lump in your throat\u2026? MV Oh, I spoke to God. I didn&amp;#039;t kneel down and do the whole thing, but I had some conversations. I felt like, Whatever this is, we&amp;#039;ll deal with it.Hoping for the best, but we&amp;#039;ll deal with it. Obviously, we&amp;#039;ve had illness in my family. That probably helped in a way. Richard has had cancer twice and lives with multiple sclerosis. We&amp;#039;ve dealt with crisis. RE Yes, which makes me wonder: Has Richard&amp;#039;s illness challenged your faith\u2014made you more skeptical\u2014or has it strengthened it? MV I think that Richard was dealt a lousy hand. I get angry at that: Why should he have to go through all this? But I&amp;#039;ve seen what [adversity] does in terms of making you the person you are. I look at the kind of person Richard is and who the kids are. That&amp;#039;s the result of what he&amp;#039;s been through. RE How has dealing with his health issues changed you? MV I think about how his mother dealt with his dad, who also had MS. How great she was with him, and how loving and supportive. I took some cues from her: You live your life every day; it is what it is. I&amp;#039;m not saying it&amp;#039;s a cakewalk at all: If his illness continues to progress, as it does for so many patients, it&amp;#039;s never a really positive outcome. But I don&amp;#039;t tend to go there, I just live every day. Also, it&amp;#039;s made me look at Richard in a much different way. I used to think denial was not a good thing, and he&amp;#039;s taught me that denial can be a great thing. It&amp;#039;s kept him going for many, many years. RE It sounds like a positive force. MV Actually, that reminds me of an interesting experience he and I had. You know Richard wrote the book I Want to Kill the Dog. RE Right\u2014poor Jasper. MV Very funny book. And we started the book tour. We were on The Dr. Oz Show, and they wanted me to come out first and say what I couldn&amp;#039;t stand about Richard, and then he was going to come out and reply\u2014it was going to be funny. I don&amp;#039;t know what triggered it, but we began talking about things I felt we&amp;#039;d lost out on due to his illness. I said, &amp;quot;When we first found out about his MS, we were runners. We would run every morning for about an hour. And to this day, when I run, I still sometimes turn to him [as if he&amp;#039;s there]. It just struck me that even though it&amp;#039;s been years, I still miss him when I run.&amp;quot; Then Richard came out. He&amp;#039;s not an emotional person, but when Dr. Oz asked, &amp;quot;What do you think about what your wife&amp;#039;s been saying?&amp;quot; Richard said, &amp;quot;You know\u2026she&amp;#039;s missed out.&amp;quot; And that emotion\u2014that was such an interesting moment, seeing him in that very vulnerable light\u2026worried about me and that [our marriage] had cost me in some way. That triggered something deep in him when I said that. Then I said, &amp;quot;I haven&amp;#039;t thought I missed out on anything. We&amp;#039;re on a different path.&amp;quot; I thought, in its own way, [what Richard had shared] was very lovely. RE Tell me more about your marriage. You&amp;#039;re home more now; how has that changed things? MV If you asked him, he&amp;#039;d say I&amp;#039;m much easier to be around. The stress of the Today show\u2014I would come home and even though I&amp;#039;d be with him, I wasn&amp;#039;t really there. I&amp;#039;d be thinking about the next day and the work. The BlackBerry would be sitting there\u2026the constant e-mails. He was very patient with me for five years, but I don&amp;#039;t think it was easy for him. On Saturdays, I just wanted to sleep, and by Sunday I was back in work mode, getting the anxiety going. RE Are there any things that have popped up about each other that drive you nuts? MV Yes. Glasses everywhere. We never have any glasses in the cabinet. Where are they? Recently there were seven on his desk upstairs. RE You also have an empty nest now. Has not having kids in the house changed your marriage a lot? MV Probably, because we can focus on each other, and that&amp;#039;s a good thing. I was the first person who would have said, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m going to be so depressed when they&amp;#039;re not here.&amp;quot; But I&amp;#039;ve found it to be nice. They come home a lot, and I love who they have become. They&amp;#039;re extremely independent young people, very confident in themselves. I think it&amp;#039;s good that they&amp;#039;re gone. They should be gone. But I do miss the hugs and even the fighting a bit\u2026just the energy of it. It&amp;#039;s part of being a kid. RE When you left the Today show, did you feel that it was about putting your family first or yourself first? MV Both. I&amp;#039;d sort of lost myself in the job. I was there, but not all of me. My head was always someplace else. I needed to find myself again in order to be part of my family. RE Let&amp;#039;s talk about health: You said you love walking along the river. Why is that important? MV I need that every day to feel good about myself, and especially to be outdoors much more than in a gym. It&amp;#039;s amazing, I can go for hours\u2014usually it&amp;#039;s more of a power walk. RE You once said that when you were a child, another girl called you fat, and you never got over it. Today, when you look in the mirror\u2026 MV Depends on the day. Some days I think I look OK; some days I feel, Oh, you look so old. You know, you&amp;#039;ll pass a mirror and you see your mother. That&amp;#039;s scary. I love my mother, but I don&amp;#039;t want to see my mother in the mirror. RE Gotcha. What&amp;#039;s your favorite healthy snack? MV I love nuts, but you have to be careful. Only a handful\u2014that&amp;#039;s it. I love berries. And apples with almond butter\u2014I think that&amp;#039;s just delicious. RE You sound so virtuous. What&amp;#039;s your biggest guilty pleasure?  MV Probably ice cream more than anything. Pistachio. Oh, and pathetic pleasures: getting in PJs with a glass of wine and watching The Bachelor. How sad is that? RE It wasn&amp;#039;t sad until you got to The Bachelor. MV Oh, my God\u2026sitting there screaming at the TV\u2026it&amp;#039;s so stupid. And then Richard will walk in and say, &amp;quot;If anybody knew this about you\u2026&amp;quot; That and House Hunters. I felt a little better when Hillary Clinton admitted that she watches Love It or List It. I said to Richard, &amp;quot;See, even the Secretary of State!&amp;quot; [Laughs] So\u2026 RE If you could give advice to your 25-year-old self, what would it be? MV Not to be so hard on yourself. I think I&amp;#039;ve always been extremely hard on myself and never thought I was good enough, no matter how well I did. Just somewhere inside me, I never thought I was good enough. I wish I&amp;#039;d had some voice going, You&amp;#039;re wrong. You&amp;#039;re fine. Back off yourself. RE That is advice that could help many of us. Thanks for sharing it\u2014and everything else. It&amp;#039;s been a pleasure. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/inspirational-stories/interviews/a19345/meredith-vieira-intimate-interview/>