Katie Couric Wishes ‘Brilliant’ and ‘Beautiful’ Daughter Carrie a Happy 24th Birthday in Sweet Post

Proud mama! Katie Couric couldn’t help but dote on her youngest daughter, Carrie Monahan, as she rang in her 24th birthday. In honor of the special celebration, the former Today star shared the sweetest tribute to commemorate her little girl’s 24 years of life.

“Happy birthday to the brilliant, beautiful, ebullient, creative, hilarious, quirky, compassionate Carrie Monahan!!!!” Katie, 62, gushed alongside a series of birthday-themed emojis on Sunday, January 5. “Hard to believe this was 24 years ago! Yesterday a child came out to wonder, caught a dragonfly inside a jar, fearful when the sky was full of thunder and tearful at the falling of a star. I love you.”

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Along with her sweet message — which included lyrics from Joni Mitchell‘s “The Circle Game” — Katie also shared a handful of photos of her gorgeous daughter. In one of the pics, the NBC alum’s eldest daughter, Elinor Monahan, 28, can be seen holding her baby sister as a newborn while late dad Jay Monahan stared in awe.

Katie — who was married to Carrie and Ellie’s dad up until his unfortunate passing in January 1998 — also posted a couple of photos of her birthday girl as a toddler. In the other snapshots, Carrie can be seen all grown up while going to prom, graduating college and traveling the world.

Although Katie and her daughters lost their beloved family patriarch to colon cancer over 20 years ago, they still keep his spirit alive. In fact, the Sugar Savvy Solution author revealed the special meaning behind Ellie’s engagement ring when she announced the exciting news in February 2019.

“OMG. Ellie and Mark are engaged!” the proud mom of two wrote alongside a photo of the happy couple. “And she’s wearing the ring her dad gave to me.” Along with her caption, Katie sweetly added the hashtags,  “happy tears,” “he asked my permission,” “I kept a secret” and “Jay would be so proud,” among many more. Aww!

Most recently, Katie honored her late hubby’s memory as she and second husband John Molner — who tied the knot in 2014 — went for couples’ colonoscopies in late November 2019. As she shared an update following their procedures, Katie thanked her and John’s doctors for “honoring Jay’s memory by helping so many patients like us,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.

Even though the legendary news anchor found love and has moved on with her life, she still holds Jay’s memory close to her heart. While chatting with Closer Weekly in a previous interview, Katie explained why she’ll always love her late husband.

“I think about him all the time,” she exclusively admitted to Closer. “We still have photos of Jay all over the place and I try to keep him alive in our day-to-day interactions. I honored him by raising two pretty great kids who have a lot of him in them.”

We hope Carrie had the best birthday!