Kathie Lee Gifford Shares Health Update After Major Surgeries

Kathie Lee Gifford is giving fans an update on her health after a slew of surgeries in recent years.

Back in July 2024, the TV personality revealed she was recovering from hip replacement surgery. That same month, she was hospitalized again after falling and fracturing her pelvis in two places amid her recovery. According to a new interview with People published on Tuesday, June 30, Gifford recently broke her arm after a wrong move while sleeping, and another bone after falling on uneven pavement. She also underwent cataract surgery upon realizing her depth perception was off.

“I feel like Mr. Potato Head! One thing falls off and then another,” Gifford jokingly told the outlet. “But you have to have a sense of humor about everything. Thank God I’ve never lost that, even in my bleakest moments. I’m a tough broad.”

Gifford is best known for her hosting roles on Live and Today. While she is proud of the “many mountains” she’s climbed in her career, she also realizes that her body has taken a lot of wear and tear from jumping “from one project to the next.”

“A lot of it was physical. I remember doing Annie at Madison Square Garden for five weeks over Christmastime [in 2006], and I played Miss Hannigan. I wanted to make it big so that the little kids sitting could see it. I did pratfalls,” she recalled. “When I look back on all of these years in this industry, I go, ‘I can’t believe I didn’t fall apart years ago.’ I’ve never abused [my body], I just used it.”

 

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Over the past few years, Gifford has kept herself busy and active looking after her five grandchildren. However, her physical pain has prevented her from taking care of them as much as she would like. “I couldn’t carry them, I couldn’t love on them, I couldn’t run and play with them,” she explained. “All I could do was sit there and sing and write silly songs with them.”

Kathie Lee revealed that she does not go out in public as much as she used to because of her pain, similar to her late husband, Frank Gifford, who died at the age of 84 in 2015. “Frank said to me before he passed, ‘When I go somewhere, I know what people are expecting from me. I want to be Frank Gifford when I go out,'” she shared. “I want to be Kathie Lee, the person they expect. I don’t want to disappoint people. But when you’re in pain, it’s so debilitating, and everything’s a grimace.”

Kathie Lee admitted that her health struggles have also taken a toll on her mental health. “I’ve had emotional pain many times in my life, but never this chronic physical pain where you literally want to go home to Jesus,” she said. “Lord, if this is all you have left for me, I want to go home.”

She went on to admit, “I wanted to die a few times. I wasn’t going to hurt myself. I wasn’t going to kill myself. I just didn’t want to be here — as blessed as I am.”

Today, Gifford is feeling good thanks to the support of her friends and family, as well as treatments such as stem cell therapy and physical therapy six days a week. She told the outlet that she is back to running “all over the place” with her grandkids, adding, “They’re all fantastic. I’m hoping, Lord willing, that I have many, many years with them.”

Gifford told the outlet that she wants to “be remembered as somebody that if they only met me one time, they think, ‘She was kind. She made me laugh.'”

She continued, “I think the secret to being not just alive but thriving is authenticity. I’ve never been a different person on camera as off. I’ve never separated my spiritual life, and my secular life. It’s all the same.”

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, contact the National Alliance on Mental Illness at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.