- - Maury Povich Says His Wife Connie Chung Always Backed His Talk Show Even as It Faced Criticism: 'She Loved It' (Exclusive)

Dave QuinnJanuary 29, 2026 at 12:10 AM

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Maury Povich spent decades at the center of one of daytime television’s most polarizing phenomena, presiding over paternity tests, lie detector results and the kind of raw confrontations that defined the height of ’90s talk TV.

But as his show became a pop culture punchline and an enduring ratings force, Povich says the person closest to him never flinched.

Speaking about the ABC News Studios docuseries Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV— which airs its third and final episode on Wednesday, Jan. 28 — Povich tells PEOPLE his wife, broadcast journalism legend Connie Chung, stood by Maury even as it became synonymous with phrases like “You are not the father” and drew criticism for sensationalizing its guests.

“More than anything else, Connie was a big supporter and she loved it,” Povich, 87, says when asked whether Chung ever tried to steer him away from the show’s sensational reputation.

Maury Povich and Connie Chung in 2016 Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Povich and Chung, 79, have been married for over four decades. They wed in 1984 after meeting while working at WTTG in Washington, D.C., and spent years working in television news consecutively before he transitioned into daytime talk.

Of course, Chung continued in hard news, becoming a historic figure in broadcast journalism. The only direction she pushed her husband in, he says, was to encourage him to start his podcast after Maury ended its 31-season run in September 2022.

That nudge, he explains, came from Chung’s desire to remind audiences that his résumé stretched far beyond the catchphrases and confrontations that became the dominant shorthand for his career.

"She wanted everybody to realize that I had 25 or 30 years of TV news journalism in my body before I ever did the talk show," says Povich, whose work in news carried into hosting A Current Affair prior to Maury's launch in 1991. "So she's the one who kind of steered me into doing podcasting. She was instrumental in that."

"I used to always tell her, 'Look, as long as you know about that part of my life, that was good enough,' " Povich recalls. "And she decided that no, other people had to know about it."

Maury Povich and Connie Chung in December 2023

Frazer Harrison/Getty

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The result, On Par with Maury Povich, is a return to long-form conversation featuring guests from across news, comedy and entertainment. The podcast leans into Povich's reporting instincts, giving him space to talk openly about his own experiences.

"It’s going back to my roots as a journalist," he says. "And it's great because it shows a different side of me. Doing a podcast is very intimate; you really get to share a lot about yourself. So I'm able have these great conversations for 35 or 40 minutes with all different kinds of people — comedians, actors, journalists. And for the first time, after all these years, I can talk about myself and my own experiences. I'm really enjoying it."

For Povich, the through line between hard news, tabloid television and daytime talk has always been a desire to hear someone's story and tell it, honestly.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing straight, hard TV news, whether you’re doing kind of tabloid journalism shows like I did with A Current Affair, or a talk show," he says. "It’s all about storytelling. And I think the main ingredient of that storytelling is just a sense of curiosity."

"I've always been curious about people. It's just a part of me," he continues. "My father was the sports writer for The Washington Post for 75 years. I kind of learned things at his knee, and he was a very curious soul, and I think I got that from him. So now, 70 years into my career, I'm still just asking the questions I'm curious about.

Maury Povich on his daytime series, 'Maury'

Courtesy Everett

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That philosophy also shaped the way Povich approached his most controversial segments on Maury. While critics accused the show of exploiting its guests, Povich insists his focus was never judgment.

"I accepted people as they are, I was never judging them," he says. "I think that's one of the reasons why I'm kind of glad I'm not in TV news these days, because there's too much judgment going on. The only judgment I have is finding a good story. From there, I just try to tell it as clearly and honestly as I can. Simple as that."

Maury Povich

Paramount Television / Courtesy Everett

Looking back, Povich says the criticism never outweighed what he saw as the show’s underlying purpose — a belief, shaped by decades in journalism and reinforced by Chung’s support, that people deserved to be heard. And regardless of how the audience interpreted it, he's proud his guests always trusted him enough with their stories.

"These people had all these burdens in their lives and they felt that they could unburden themselves and find a safe place with me," Povich says. "And I don't know how that came about; I don't know how that instinct and connection was made. I don't want to try to analyze it, because I just basically relied on my human instinct. But I'm proud of the fact that all these guests and my audience felt safe with me. That's what matters more than anything."

Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV airs Wednesday (at 9 p.m.) Episodes stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”