New York Post

Katie dissed my dad!

- Kirsten Fleming

Ashleigh Banfield wants Katie Couric to “correct the record” on her father.

In a blistering but poignant response to Couric’s upcoming memoir — which takes aim at Martha Stewart, Prince Harry, Deborah Norville and Banfield, the NewsNation streaming-channel host (above) said she was “stunned” by what the former “Today” anchor wrote, especially about Ashleigh’s “senile” dad.

In the memoir “Going There,” out Oct. 26 but already leaking widely, Couric admitted she was reluctant to mentor Banfield, who at the time was a rising MSNBC cable talent.

“For a minute there, Ashleigh Banfield was the next big thing,” Couric, 64, revealed in a passage first obtained by the Daily Mail. “I’d heard her father was telling anyone who’d listen that she was going to replace me. In that environmen­t, mentorship sometimes feels like self-sabotage.”

In a Wednesday-evening monologue on NewsNation, the 53-year-old Canadian journalist blasted the story.

“I want to correct the record here because you went after my Dad,” she said.

She revealed that “a New York Post reporter” found the number for her father who was “near 80 and extremely senile and living in a care home.”

“They got his landline and called, and said, ‘Are you afraid for your daughter?’ to which he said, ‘Yes. And I think NBC should bring her home and give her a desk job like Katie’s.’

“That is a far cry from being able to even leave the facility, let alone tell anyone who would listen. So that hurts my feelings deeply, and I hope Miss Couric corrects the record on that.”

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