Everyone remembers where they were on Sept. 11, 2001.

For Lara Spencer, a correspondent for Good Morning America at the time, she told PEOPLE in an exclusive conversation that she was at a New York Fashion Week show — but shifted gears as the 9/11 terror attacks started.

“It’s in the times of breaking news where we really do come together, and I think the show shines,” Spencer, 56, says of her GMA team, now and then, at the ABC morning show’s 50th anniversary celebration in New York City on Nov. 3 — 24 years after the tragic attacks that killed 2,977 people.

She adds, “I was six months pregnant and covering [the fashion show] for GMA and to just watch how we shifted gears from a regular news day.”

Now, a mother of two, she recalls how she “just took it on and informed the country at a really pivotal moment.”

”That’s a lot,” she emphasizes.

At the time, Spencer was pregnant with her first child, son Duff Haffenreffer, who was born in 2002. He is now 23. Spencer shares Duff and daughter Katherine, who was born in 2004, with ex-husband David Haffenreffer.

Spencer is now married to Rick McVey, whom she wed in 2018.

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The longtime GMA star, who after 9/11 went on to co-anchor the morning show before stepping back to be a contributor to focus on other endeavors, also told PEOPLE when the magic of GMA really hit her. 

“Oh, my goodness, that’s hard. I’ve been with the show for 20 years,” she recalls. “So many moments. I think, of course, of all the fun times when we get to really be ourselves and you really do see the real us.”

“Michael [Strahan] is Michael. Robin [Roberts] is Robin,” she adds. “Everybody’s very authentic, and I think that’s why it translates.”