Conan O’Brien’s longtime assistant talks ‘World’s Worst Mom,’ IVF and parenting twin boys ahead of Seattle appearance

Sona Movsesian has worked for Conan O’Brien for more than 17 years, 12 as his assistant. She turned that experience into a New York Times bestselling memoir about professional inadequacy. Now she’s written the sequel about falling short at the job that actually matters.

Movsesian, best known to millions of listeners as the lovably unfiltered foil on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast, appears Wednesday evening at Town Hall Seattle to promote her new book, “The World’s Worst Mom.” The event begins at 7:30 p.m.

The book follows her 2022 bestseller “The World’s Worst Assistant” and chronicles the last five years of raising twin boys, Charlie and Mikey, now 5 years old. But where the first book played her shortcomings as a Hollywood assistant for laughs, the new one hits closer to home.

“This is the most important job I have, so this one has the highest stakes,” Movsesian said on KIRO Newsradio’s “Seattle’s Morning News.” “The book is about the giant gap between the parent you thought you were going to be and the parent you are.”

Movsesian said the carefree version of herself vanished the moment she got pregnant

Movsesian’s transition from assistant to mother was almost seamless, at least on the calendar. When O’Brien’s TBS show ended, she had the twins a week later. She said she no longer handles O’Brien’s day-to-day scheduling and has devoted most of her time to parenting.

But she said the carefree version of herself disappeared long before the boys arrived.

“As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I was in my head, and then when I found out I was having twins, it was over for me,” she said.

Movsesian was open about her path to motherhood, describing the IVF process as “all-consuming.”

“That carefree, happy, no-anxiety, stress-free version of me just kind of died the moment I started injecting hormones into my body,” she said.

The book blends essays with illustrations by her husband, including a recurring comic in which Movsesian time-travels to visit her 25-year-old self. The younger version’s first observation: how haggard she looks.

“At one point, I forget even why I time-traveled, and I just sit down with her and watch television,” Movsesian said with a laugh. “Because I just need a break.”

That comic runs as a through line in the book, she said, contrasting who she was a decade ago with the mother she’s become; someone who measures herself against ideals she now considers unattainable.

“All these expectations we put on ourselves as moms, these sort of ideals we have for ourselves, I don’t know anybody who lives up to that, and I definitely don’t,” she said. “I really think that we set ourselves up to fail.”

Movsesian said her goal with the book is simple: make at least one parent feel less alone.

“We aren’t allowed to be vulnerable,” she said. “By me being vulnerable, I hope it helps other moms become vulnerable and talk openly about how hard it is to be a parent, because it is hard. It’s the hardest job you can do.”

She said she hopes readers also come away laughing, noting that the longer someone is a parent, the more they realize how universal the struggles are.

“I hope that people just sort of take away from this book that it’s OK to be vulnerable, it’s OK to talk openly about how tough it is, and you don’t have to put up some sort of facade that everything is OK,” she said.

Tickets and information for Wednesday’s Town Hall Seattle event are available here.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to  “Seattle’s Morning News” weekdays from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3.

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