Newscasters Katy Tur and Tony Dokoupil wed in 2017 and are raising two children together. Dokoupil has worked hard to come to terms with his own troubled upbringing. Here’s the story.
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Katy Tur’s Weed Importing Father-In-Law
CBS This Morning host Tony Dokoupil grew up in luxury. His family had their own yacht. Tony’s father, Anthony Dokoupil, left the family when Tony was only six years old, and they went from rags to riches overnight. Unbeknownst to Tony at the time, his father was a drug dealer.
Anthony dealt marijuana, and he wasn’t a small-time dealer at that. He was indicted for importing 35,000 pounds of pot. The earnings paid for a lavish lifestyle, but Tony said his father soon blew it in a fit of self-destruction: his father “broke a cardinal rule of dealing and became an addict himself. Coke and hookers, mostly,” Tony wrote.
Tony Dokoupil’s Family Business
Drugs were also a family business. Tony’s mother kept the financial books for her husband but evaded any punishment. She never told her son about her father’s crimes. He didn’t find out until he pursued a career in journalism and began doing research. “I thought he bought and sold real estate in New England—what he actually did was rain marijuana over the entire Northeast,” Tony later said.
Tony went on to write a memoir about his family, The Last Pirate, where he discussed his perplexing family tree. Anthony was unbothered by the book, telling his son: “It felt good to see my past come out. I liked being a smuggler. The crimes I committed were victimless. No one got hurt. I never cheated anyone.” He was also glad that his experience could help his son’s career.
According to Tony, his father was “a very principled marijuana dealer” who believed in the drugs he was selling. He thought he was “importing something that [brought] love and joy in the world.” The profits from his business were enough to keep his family living the high life, until it all caught up to him.
How Are They Now?
Anthony spent a few years in jail for his crimes, but it seems like Anthony and Tony have a relationship again. Anthony was staying with Tony and Tur as of 2019 where he was fostering a relationship with his grandchildren. One can only imagine just how shocked Tony was to learn that his father was not a real estate broker, but actually one of Miami’s more successful drug dealers.
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