Katy Tur opens up about her reaction to her father Zoey Tur coming out as trans

MSNBC anchor Katy Tur has opened up about her reaction when her legendary broadcaster father came out as transgender to her almost a decade ago. 

Speaking to CBS about her new memoir Rough Draft, Katy reminisced about her childhood flying over Los Angeles with her helicopter reporter parents, the former power couple of broadcasters Marika Gerrard and Zoey Tur – formerly Bob Tur. 

The 38-year-old recounted the 2013 call with her estranged father, who has never met her two children with ‘CBS This Morning’ co-host Tony Dokoupil.

‘My dad said, ”I am a woman.’ And I said ”What?” And my dad said, ”I’m a woman, I’m transitioning, I’m going to become a woman,” Katy told CBS Sunday Morning. 

‘And I remember being at first puzzled and saying, ”You gotta be joking. You’re kidding, what are you talking about?”’

The MSNBC anchor also accused her father of throwing batteries at her, her brother and mother, and punching walls when she was growing up. 

Katy said her father confessed to her during the call that her volatility and violence during the turbulent marriage with Gerrard stemmed from Zoey not being able to be her true self. 

Zoey, who is famously known for covering the 92′ LA riots and the infamous OJ Simpson low-speed chase from the sky, acknowledged that working in the demanding journalism industry had affected her behavior at home.  

‘She [Katy] really looked up to me, and I failed her. No father wants to fail their daughter … Throwing batteries? Probably, yeah. Punching walls? There were a couple,’ she told CBS.  

Katy, who went on to become an award-winning journalist of her own right, told CBS  she was puzzled when she received a call from her father in 2013, the last time she spoke with her. 

‘And my dad was adamant. ”I’m the wrong person. I’m going to become the right person. Don’t you see? This is why I’ve been so angry” And it was really just, it was a lot,’ Katy said. 

Zoey had previously said that Katy has not spoken to her since she made the decision to transition. 

Zoey has also said in the past that she does not consider Katy as ‘transphobic.’ 

‘It’s that her hero father has become this. And it’s the fear of not fitting in. It’s the pressure of being on network television. It’s the conservatism that she’s forced to endure,’ she told  The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. 

‘… You have to appreciate that her image of me has been torn apart,’ said Tur. 

Speaking to CBS, Zoey admitted that he had let her daughter down and blamed her past fits of rage on the stress she experienced in the business. 

‘I was in the news business and we were under extraordinary pressure. I could be very intimidating for sure. And if the kids felt I was intimidating, I apologize. I did the best I could,’ she said. 

Katy told CBS due to her work ethic, she felt compelled to share both the good and bad sides of her parent’s marriage in her new memoir.  

‘And part of the story is the violence. If I only wrote the good stuff it would have been a lie. It’s a business where you’re not supposed to lie. You’re supposed to tell the truth and this is the truth,’ she told the outlet. 

In her memoir Rough Draft, Katy opens up about everything from childhood to journalism to becoming a parent. 

She is also the author of ‘Unbelievable: My Front Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in History,’ a best-selling account of covering Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for NBC.

‘Rough Draft is for me not a story of the last four years, but the last 40,’ Katy said in a statement last year. 

‘I watched my parents revolutionize the breaking news business, then break apart themselves, a fact I ran from until I had no choice: write this book or walk away. I chose to write.’ 

Zoey has said she made the decision to transition while sitting in a Florida hotel room and working on a George Zimmerman documentary, telling herself she either had to do something or her life would end in suicide.

She began watching videos on YouTube which inspired her so much she wrote personal letters to her son and daughter, sharing her news and explaining her future plans.

‘There’s no coming back from that,’ she said in 2016. 

‘And I got down on the ground and my phone started lighting up. It was my son. And his reaction was, ‘Well, if it’s going make you happy, I’m happy.”

Katy though ‘did not like it for a moment at all’ said Zoey, adding: ‘They knew I was bisexual. That was acceptable. The transgender stuff, no. No, that crossed the line.’

Zoey has previously said that her daughter’s reaction is ‘not unusual,’ and has claimed that she was a huge influence in Katy’s life and the reason she got into journalism. 

Katy joined the NBC team back in 2009 and steadily rose the ranks. 

In 2009, she received the AP’s Best Spot News Award for her coverage of the 2008 crane collapse in Manhattan. 

She covered the Trump presidential campaign for NBC in 2016 and was who informed him of the Access Hollywood Tape. She is now an anchor for MSNBC.