Katie Couric Engaged to Financier John Molner Katie Couric will be wearing an extra piece of jewelry when she returns for the second season of her talk show, "Katie," next week. Couric, 56, became engaged Labor Day weekend to John Molner, 50, her boyfriend of nearly two years. Molner proposed to Couric, a widow since her husband, Jay Monahan, died from colon cancer in 1998, at sunset on the beach in East Hampton, N.Y., according to People magazine. They share a common bond with roots in the Midwest. Molner, the head of mergers and acquisitions at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., is based in Chicago, the same city where Couric's parents met. "It's always had a special place in my heart," Couric told USA Today in May of Chicago. I love Midwesterners. Couric and Molner made a high-profile public appearance in May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala and were spotted sitting courtside at a New York Knicks game that same month. We're having a great time. He's really funny and very successful in his own right. In a different line of work. A little more age appropriate," Couric told USA Today, alluding to her previous boyfriend entrepreneur Brooks Perlin, 17 years younger. Couric also told the paper her mom "really likes" Molner. "I encouraged him to be very Eddie Haskell around her," she said. "So he's always saying, "May I get you another Diet Coke, Mrs. Couric?"" Molner will become a stepdad to Couric's two daughters with Monahan, Ellie, 21, and Carrie, 17.