Kristen Welker Was ‘Terrified’ to Share Her Infertility Journey But Found Something Special Along the Way

Meet the Press host Kristen Welker has been telling others’ stories for nearly 30 years. Four years ago, she decided to share one that’s deeply personal.

When Welker and her husband John Hughes — whom she married in March 2017 — started trying to have children, the couple faced a struggle with infertility.

Now, in honor of World Infertility Awareness Month in June, Welker is speaking with PEOPLE about her family’s journey and why she decided to share it with her TV audience and social media followers. 

“One in six people struggle with infertility, and so it is important, particularly in this month, to stop and think about what that means,” says Welker, 48. “I always try to draw a focus on the importance of resources, and my hope is also that, by having a conversation about infertility, we can find ways to increase resources for people who are struggling.”

Following months of fertility treatment attempts, Welker and Hughes, 52, welcomed their first child, daughter Margot, on June 12, 2021, with the help of a surrogate.

The journalist made the decision to share her story publicly from the very beginning. Then a White House correspondent and weekend co-anchor on Today, Welker filmed an intimate segment about her path towards parenthood for the morning show. 

She shared the personal highs and lows, revealing that after one round of in vitro fertilizations (IVF), doctors told her that the lining of her uterus was too thin to carry a child.

“It was really some of the most difficult months that I can remember,” Welker revealed in the powerful Today segment. “I was going to the doctor in between live shots at work and just feeling like, ‘You’re a failure.’”

Ultimately, Welker and her husband made the decision to try for a child using a gestational carrier. She says it was an easy decision to share her fertility story, “in part because I want to be honest with the audience who welcomed me into their living rooms on their TV sets, every day.”

“And also, because I wanted to celebrate the journey that my daughter had coming to this earth,” she continues. “I want my daughter to feel very proud of how she’s here, the extent to which her dad and I loved her so much before she was born, before we could even conceive of her.”

Welker admits that she was initially “terrified” to go public with her infertility story. However, the “incredibly positive” responses she’s received in the years since have confirmed that she made the right decision.

“[I’ve had] women, families, emailing me, texting me,” she says. “People I’ve been friends with for years, people I’ve never met before [were] reaching out to say, ‘Thank you for sharing your infertility journey. We are going through something similar. We have experienced something similar. Today we feel a little bit less alone because you shared your story.’ ”

“A lot of the notes that I got brought me to tears,” Welker says, “and also gave me so much strength and made me realize there is a community of people struggling with infertility. And I think that when we share our stories, we are stronger and we feel less alone.”

Three years later, in May 2024, she and Hughes added to their family once again, welcoming son John Zachary with the help of another surrogate carrier. The two experiences, Welker shares, have shaped her family in so many ways.

“Both surrogates are still a part of our lives,” she explains. “I reach out to them on birthdays and holidays. We send each other pictures, and we’re in constant communication.”

“They’re both really like a part of my family,” Welker adds. “I’m just so grateful to both of them for the incredible gifts that they gave us.”

Amid her intimate family journey, Welker also began exploring a new professional direction. In addition to reporting on world issues every week, she has also found a way to link headline stories with personal experiences. Her “Meet the Moment” segments on Meet the Press have highlighted public figures dealing with real-world struggles that many viewers can relate to.

She’s spoken with Selma Blair about her battle with multiple sclerosis, and interviewed Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe about the issues facing women’s sports. Most personally, on Sunday’s episode, Welker sits down with actress Olivia Munn to discuss their respective experience with fertility and surrogacy. 

“We talked about the fact that it’s a challenge to get to that point of deciding that you want to go the route of surrogacy,” Welker says. “I think that when you’re battling infertility, you often feel alone, you feel isolated.”

One less-discussed aspect of surrogacy that Munn pointed out is the fact that “many women feel called to [be a surrogate]. They want to work with someone to expand their family,” Welker says.

The pair also discussed life as working moms, particularly how to juggle the personal and professional at a time when the news never stops.

Speaking with PEOPLE, Welker says that there have been a few instances when breaking stories have pulled her away from her family, but for the most part, she is adamant about drawing a line.

“When I’m at home, I turn off and tune out and I’m focused on my kids,” she shares. “I am focused on them until we get them to bed.”

Welker says that bedtime deadline can be difficult these days as Margot, who turns 4 on June 12, has become a “master procrastinator,” but she does her best. The mother-daughter duo makes up for that with a weekly “Mommy-Margot Lunch.”

“I always try to have just special days with her,” she shares. “We’re going to the park together, we’re going to lunch, we’re having an adventure, so that she knows that on my days off, in my time off, she and her brother, John Zachary, are my entire focus.”

For Memorial Day weekend this year, Meet the Press dedicated its whole hour to a special edition on children’s mental health and youth loneliness. The powerful information, Welker says, is something she’ll take with her as her kids continue to grow up in an increasingly complicated world.

“I certainly drew some important lessons from it, including that it’s important to create a community of parents in which you are agreeing to hold off on social media, making sure that your kids are playing face to face,” she says. “My kids are a little too young to worry about social media, thankfully, but the tools and some of the lessons from that show are ones that I plan to carry with me.”

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For now, Welker’s focus remains on her family, who are in birthday mode as summer begins. They celebrated John Zachary’s first birthday on May 30. “He was just excited to try cake,” the news anchor recalls with a laugh.

It’s Margot who’s laid out her list of demands for her upcoming fourth birthday on June 12. 

“She is deeply involved,” Welker says with a laugh. “She wants a Moana-themed event. She would like a cat and a bicycle.”

Happy to give her daughter whatever she wants — within reason, of course — Welker adds that her own birthday plans on July 1 “might sound cheesy.” 

“I’m just excited to sit back and relax on my birthday and have dinner with them, and celebrate these miracles in my life and my husband, John, who helps make it all possible,” she shared. 

Welker’s interview with Olivia Munn airs Sunday, June 8, on Meet the Press, 9 a.m. ET on NBC.