Good Morning America cohost Lara Spencer is recalling her experience covering the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York City while she was pregnant.
“25 years ago today. I was a correspondent for ABC News and six months pregnant with my first child,” Spencer, 57, wrote via Instagram on Friday, September 11. “Charlie Gibson cut into my live report from [New York] Fashion Week that morning to say there appeared to be a commuter plane that went off course and flew into the World Trade Center.”
She continued, “When the second plane struck the other tower, we knew it was not an accident and my crew and I were immediately moved downtown. We made it to 23rd street and couldn’t get further [because] of the sea of people rushing uptown by foot in the middle of the ave — trying to get as far away from the towers as they could. And then the first tower fell.”
Spencer, who shares son Duff, 24, and daughter Katherine, 21, with ex-husband David Haffenreffer, further noted that she “will never forget” the scene of the tragedy.
“My heart still breaks thinking of those families — desperately holding onto hope,” Spencer concluded in her social media tribute. “I will never forget.”
Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which Spencer was reporting on live from New York City.
“This is a place where people are bringing pictures of their loved ones,” she said during an ABC broadcast, which she reshared via her Instagram on Friday. “They’re bringing them inside [and] they’re hoping for some information. They are also putting them outside, as you can see, they are putting them on anything they can. They’re putting them on signposts, behind me over here you can see this phone booth is absolutely covered with pictures of the missing and their story.”
Spencer noted that, at the time, many family members “just wanted to know something” about where their loved ones were.
“Of course they’re holding out hope that perhaps the name will pop up on a master list from one of the hospitals, perhaps even that their loved one is still clinging to life under that pile of rubble down at Ground Zero,” she stated during the ABC broadcast. “They just want to know one way or another, even if they find out that the body has been found. That brings closure to this devastating situation. We will be here all day long talking to the family and the friends.”
