In the present-day of 2003, Tully and Kate are in totally different places in their lives. Tully is a famous, high-life-living talk show host of The Golden Hour while Kate is a recent divorcée dealing with her now-teenage rebellious daughter Marah. After mostly living as a housewife for the past 13 or so years, Kate is re-entering the workforce as an editor's assistant, while her soon-to-be ex-husband Johnny works for Tully's show on production. Tully helps Kate through the divorce, pushing her to get her groove back, but also tends to mess up when it comes to her best friend. From flirting with Kate's crush at a school function, to having somewhat-inappropriate conversations with Johnny, to signing Marah's birth control consent form, Tully's self-centreed nature shows through often.
In regard to relationships, Kate is dealing with the fact that Johnny is leaving to Iraq as a war correspondent, while also getting romantic with a photographer from the magazine she works at. Tully has a younger love interest named Max who earnestly wants to make it work with her, but she acts like a bit of a man-eater with him (what a surprise!). Soon enough, Kate and Johnny embark on a relationship again amidst the divorce, and Tully finds out she's pregnant. But not everything is rainbows and butterflies: Tully and Max have a romantic wedding, but after Tully has a miscarriage, she kicks him out of the house and he refuses to come back. Kate's boss publishes an exposé on Tully's mom that gravely hurts her career, leading to her quitting the show (Kate quits her job too in solidarity).
Apart from all the drama that occurs in 2003, we're also fast-forwarded to 2005 that shows Kate and Tully are no longer on speaking terms for something Tully did, but we'll have to wait for season two for that.