Maury Povich is opening up about his retirement — and the mixed emotions he feels about it.
Days after the 83-year-old Maury host announced he was retiring at the conclusion of his show’s current season, he opened up about the decision. He told Good Morning America that he wrapped Season 31 last week, which airs until September, and it hasn’t yet hit him that his typical summer hiatus is a forever break.
“Everybody says, ‘How does it feel?'” Povich said Wednesday. “It just feels that the season is ending. Come August or September,” when taping would have resumed, if “there’s no red [camera] light, no audience, and there’s no staff and crew … I don’t know how I’m going to feel. I think I’m going to feel maybe empty. Maybe I’ll feel lost.”
He added, “All l know is we’ve had such a good run, I thought now was the time to end it.”
Povich said he’ll “miss the storytelling,” he’s done on this show as well as previous gigs, including newsmagazine A Current Affair. “Whatever I’ve done all these years, I’ve said I’m nothing more than a storyteller.” Though it’s hard to say goodbye to the staff and crew of Maury, many of whom he’s worked with for 25 to 30 years. “I’m going to miss them the most.”
He said he “didn’t tear up last week at our final taping until they started,” he admitted. “When they started, it was a river.”
Povich said his top memory from Maury was a paternity test shocker that determined a woman’s twins were fathered by two different men. “I look at my staff and go: What?!”
But paternity and lie detector tests aside, he said he hopes he’ll be remembered for being fair, honest, and compassionate in his storytelling.
As for what he’ll be doing with extra time on his hands, it seems like more golf — as the interview took place on a golf course. Beyond that, he said his wife, Connie Chung, whom he married in 1984, will come up with some plans for him.
She will “find some creative ways to keep me out of the house,” he quipped. “I can tell you that.”
