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Kathie Lee Gifford has an answer for everyone who has been wondering where she has been since leaving Today in 2019.
“Who cares? She’s getting old,” Gifford quipped, when Kotb said how often she gets asked, “What’s Kath doing?” Gifford continued, “And you know what? So are all of you, at the exact same pace, one second at a time. So don’t talk about how old I look.” Kotb couldn’t help but laugh, responding, “You are crazy.”
The clip, which was shared on Instagram on Wednesday, July 17, was a snippet from the 70-year-old’s return to Today. She stopped by to chat about her new book and also looked back on working with late Regis and Kathie Lee co-host Regis Philbin, who passed away in July 2020.
“Regis and I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in today’s world,” Gifford said, noting how sad it was because “entertainers and performers — and especially comedians — need to have the freedom to be funny.”
Prior to hosting with pal Kotb, Gifford starred alongside Philbin from 1985 (when it was a New York morning show) to 2000, when it became syndicated as Live With Regis and Kathie Lee. Gifford said she “never set out to be famous,” but just wanted to find something she loved to do and get paid for it, per her father’s advice.
Hosting was that love, and she said it never felt like work, “especially if it was with Regis or Hoda.” In fact, she felt such a “loyalty” to her co-hosts that she rushed back to work after having children because she felt they were both working to “build something together.” She also credited “fun” as the secret to their success.
She emphasized “fun,” because she finds today’s world too “mean-spirited.” In Gifford’s opinion, people – and TV personalities — today are always worried about offending someone, when she has never meant to offend, but rather likes to speak her mind. She also doesn’t particularly enjoy television as a viewer anymore, sharing, “People aren’t as interesting anymore. They’re afraid. I don’t want to live my life in fear.”
Now, Gifford, who has suffered difficulties in recent years — like losing husband Frank Gifford in 2015 and undergoing hip surgery in 2024 — is busy promoting her new book, Herod and Mary: The True Story of the Tyrant King and the Mother of the Risen Savior, which was inspired by a rabbinical trip in Israel, per People.
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The post Kathie Lee Gifford Reunites With Hoda Kotb on ‘Today’ to Reveal Where She’s Been All This Time appeared first on Newsweek.
