You have had such a successful television career, and it's been pretty diverse, too. You started in reality TV, you did sportscasting, and now you're in entertainment news. Have you always wanted to be on television since you were a kid?
No. You know what's interesting? The goal for me was never about TV or fame or anything like that. I just always knew I wanted to do something creative. Back when I did the first "Road Rules" — Let's see. I'm 51 years old. I did that when I was 24. What is that? 26 years ago? I had no idea what I was getting into, and I thought they hired me because I was an athlete. I ran in college and I love sports, so I thought it was, like, an extreme sports thing. But I didn't get, because I wasn't an actress, what it was. So on a whim, I just joined the Winnebago.
And then, after that, I was like, "Wow, if I could parlay this into TV — I really enjoyed being in front of the camera, being myself, being natural. If there was ever something that I could do that, that would be interesting to me." I sort of took off from there.
But what's funny is, those shows end, and I think it's still today, and when they're over, they're sort of like, "See you later." I remember meeting with MTV and they said, "Kit, you'd be great in sales." You know what I mean? And I'd already come from sales. I sold copiers for Kodak right out of college, so I was like, "Okay, I've already done that." So it's funny that it's not like — I think people think everything just opens up to you. You have to hustle and keep grinding and really go for it.
You were a stay-at-home mom before "Access," right?
Oh, yeah. The joke there, which is really not a joke, but I had worked. I did MTV. I did this show "Real Simple." I hosted a show for ESPN. Then, I had this moment in my life where I'm eight months pregnant with my third child, my house burned down. We lost everything we own, and, literally, I was probably 40-something by then. The phone was not ringing with the jobs coming in. The joke is that I told my agents to hold all calls. I was going to take a beat, but nobody was calling. There [were] no calls to hold. [Laughs]
But you know what was funny about me in that moment was I just threw myself — Again, how lucky that I had the luxury to be a stay-at-home mom. A lot of my friends don't have that luxury. At the time, my husband had a really good job. And so, I just took the beat and raised my babies, and we rebuilt our home and sort of released to the universe. I started creating this clothing line that I was going to do. I started writing this children's book. I just started —
This business will eat you up if it's everything you're about, so I'm lucky that I have great family and friends and a very fertile mind that I was sort of just thinking of what my next phase would be, and then "Access Hollywood" called at 40! I mean, that's funny. I don't think I'm your typical entertainment-looking reporter from back in the day.
