Lara Spencer is feeling all the feels as the youngest in her family, Katharine "Kat" Haffenreffer, is officially a college student, and she becomes an empty nester.
The Good Morning America anchor, 54, dropped off her daughter at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee earlier this week, with the support of her husband Richard McVey, her son Duff, 21, and ex-husband and Kat's dad, David Haffenreffer.
She first shared a selfie with Kat from the car, enroute to Vanderbilt, writing: "College here we come," and followed it up with a view from a meal with the family of Kat's roommate.
"The night before college move in. Carb loading with my nugget and her awesome new roomie and family. Thank you Egidio and @ilfornonashville for the great meal and memories."
She shared a few photos with GMA online, showing off the preparations being made to move Kat into freshmen dorms, with a glimpse of her new room.
Lara and her 18-year-old lookalike daughter posed for a photo beside her newly done-up bed, covered with plush cushions and a pair of stuffed animals while posters lined the wall, complete with several accents of blue.
© InstagramLara has a support system, however, in her GMA colleague George Stephanopoulos, who dropped his own youngest, Harper, off at Vanderbilt as well with wife Ali Wentworth.
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George, 62, told the ABC News show that Harper and Kat had gotten together before moving in and will be in the same class, saying of their own new lives as empty nesters: "Ali and I met and got married within nine months, and had a baby nine months later, so we've never known a house without kids really."
© InstagramLara shared her own POV on the matter with a show of support for Ali's emotional post on Instagram, chronicling the "brutal" feelings of separation from her daughters.
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She commented on the post: "I hear you sister. I am at the airport with a giant lump in my throat. I don't want to leave. It's going to feel too real. The house will be too quiet. The music won't be blaring. Her room will be neat. My clothes will not be missing. I don't like it one bit."
© Lara Spencer/GMADuff, meanwhile, is a student at Southern Methodist University in Texas, which is nearly a 24 hour drive from their family home in Connecticut.
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The Covid-19 induced lockdown presented an opportunity for the HGTV star to spend more time with her two children ahead of Kat's departure for college.
© InstagramIn an exclusive chat with HELLO! last year, Lara expressed relief that she still had more time to spend with her daughter. "We have one more year," she said. "I'm so thankful." Kat was accepted to Vanderbilt early on a lacrosse scholarship, courtesy of years of athletic prowess in high school.
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