“Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker has welcomed her second child, a baby boy named John Zachary Welker Hughes, who already knows how to impress his editors by meeting a deadline.
The happy news came Sunday when Welker's understudy, Peter Alexander, announced on air that the “Meet the Press” family officially had a new member, who arrived almost two weeks ahead of schedule.
The baby was born Thursday, weighing 7 pounds and measuring nearly 20 inches long, Alexander said. Welker, who announced on the “Today” show in May that she and her husband John Hughes were expecting the child through a surrogate, said at the time that the baby would be born on June 12. The couple went public with their life update in hopes that their news “offers hope to other people who are trying to start their own families.”
Baby John joins his big sister Margot, 3, who was “extremely proud” to welcome her brother home on Saturday, Alexander said as images of the growing family appeared during the broadcast. Welker was seen in photographs cradling the newcomer, as were her husband and her young daughter.
“Kristen shares that her surrogate mother, who she calls her 'angel on earth,' is doing great,” Alexander added.
“Today” show co-host Carson Daly also confirmed the arrival of John Zachary on Monday, telling viewers that the little one's nickname would be JZ, much to the delight of his morning show co-stars.
Welker, who made history in September when she became the first Black woman to moderate the network's Sunday public affairs show, has been candid about her struggle with infertility and her support of others facing similar circumstances. The former NBC chief White House correspondent welcomed her daughter Margot via surrogacy in 2021 and this time worked with a surrogate named Angelica, describing her last month as a “literal angel on earth ”.
Welker spoke publicly about her challenging path to fatherhood in 2021, sharing that Welker underwent in vitro fertilization treatments for two years before discovering that her uterus was not thick enough to give birth. The “NBC Nightly News” fill-in anchor and her husband said in May that they were determined to give their daughter a sibling and began “working on a second baby” in 2022. The process was filled with setbacks and heartbreak, including the loss of embryos. , but Welker said she's proud that she and Hughes didn't give up.
It's unclear how long Welker will be out of the moderating role on “Meet the Press.” A spokesperson for the NBC show did not immediately respond Monday to The Times' request for comment.
