Love of Life

By Andrea Sachs

As an anchor and writer for 14 years at ABC and NBC, Linda Ellerbee achieved her own kind of fame as a television personality--outspoken, irreverent and insightful. She was a real-life Murphy Brown, and the rumor was that she inspired the sitcom. This month Ellerbee, 60, comes out with a new book, Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table. She spoke with TIME's ANDREA SACHS about an array of topics, from women in TV news to her battle with cancer.

Have things changed for women on TV?

It's easier to be a woman in television news today than it was when I started. There is no question about it, and the pay is better. It will be interesting to see--now that Dan [Rather] has left, and Tom [Brokaw] has left, and Peter [Jennings] is off at least temporarily--after the all-male anchor troika, whether any of those people are replaced by women.

What's your guess?

Yes. But I don't think it will be a single anchor. There are not a lot of programs on television news where there's just one anchor and it's a woman. As far as I know, Nick News [a children's program on Nickelodeon that Ellerbee has anchored for 14 years] may be the longest-running program on national television anchored solely by a woman. I'm lucky. I have a really smart audience. They don't care how old I am. Anyone over 20 looks old to them.

What has getting older been like for you?

Turning 40 never bothered me. Turning 50 never bothered me. I think what bothered me about turning 60 was the complete realization that there really weren't an unlimited number of summers left--or an unlimited number of Saturday nights. It made me angry. It didn't matter how healthy I was at 60. I probably wouldn't be that healthy at 70. You can put a good face on it. You can say, "I'm going to try to live as healthy as I can for as long as I live and live as hard as I can and have as much fun as I can for as long as I live," but you can't really pretend that you're 30 again.

Marriage: for it or against it?

I married four times between the ages of 19 and 29. I never married again. Rolfe [Tessem, a former network-news producer and director] and I are celebrating 19 years together in September, but we have never married. I think I've discovered the secret. I'm not very good at marriage. Why ruin a good thing? We own a production company together. We live together. We love each other. Our lives are joined in many, many ways. I don't know how we could be more married.

How did being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 change your life?

I became fitter. I began to work out, take care of my body more. It may be corny, but it would be untrue not to say that you do suddenly see the use of stopping to smell the flowers. Because if you're not careful, life will speed right back up on you, and you will forget how lucky you are to be on the right side of the grass each morning.

You've traveled all over the world. How important has that been for you?

Enormously important. We grew up in a culture where everyone said, particularly if you were a little girl, "Don't talk to strangers." It was my father who taught me that once you talked to them, they were no longer strangers. I've made a hell of a good living over the years talking to strangers.