More than a decade after losing her husband, Frank Gifford, Kathie Lee Gifford is opening up about where she stands on love and why she’s content embracing this next chapter of life on her own.
In a new interview with People ahead of the 11th anniversary of Frank’s death in August, the former “Today” co-host revealed she isn’t looking for another relationship and doesn’t expect to walk down the aisle again.
“I am not dating anybody right now, and I don’t want to date,” Gifford said. “I’m not looking, and I don’t think I’ll ever get married again.”
Still, she isn’t ruling out the impossible.
“Frank will always be the love of my life,” she said, adding that if “God wants to do something miraculous” and bring another great love into her life, she’s open to whatever happens.
Remembering a Nearly Three-Decade Love Story
Kathie Lee and Frank first met in 1982 while working at ABC and married four years later. Together, they welcomed two children, Cody and Cassidy, and built a marriage that lasted nearly 29 years.
Although their relationship faced challenges, including Frank’s highly publicized affair in 1997, Kathie Lee chose forgiveness and remained committed to their family. Looking back, she told People she still hears from people who say her decision inspired them to work through struggles in their own marriages.
“There’s not a day that goes by that somebody doesn’t come up to me” to say her story helped save their marriage, she said.
Kathie Lee also reflected on the day Frank died in 2015 after suffering a heart attack at their home. She recalled finding him after he collapsed and said she and their son Cody tried to revive him before first responders arrived. EMTs later reassured her that Frank “never suffered.”
After his death, Frank’s brain was donated to science and was later found to have Stage 4 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma. Kathie Lee said Cody has since become involved in raising awareness about the condition.
She also shared that Frank had long accepted he would likely pass away before her because of their 23-year age difference. Before his death, she recalled him telling her, “I’m not afraid. I’m starting to get really curious,” per People.
Finding Joy in a New Chapter
These days, Gifford said she’s focused on enjoying the present with her family, career and five grandchildren.
That outlook also played a role in another major life decision. According to another People report, Gifford recently listed the Connecticut home she shared with Frank for more than three decades after realizing it no longer felt the same following his death.
The couple purchased the waterfront estate in 1994 and raised Cody and Cassidy there. Gifford said she spent 32 years transforming the property into a family home, pouring her “heart and soul, and blood, sweat, and tears” into it.
But after Frank passed away and their children started families of their own, she said the house lost the energy that once filled it.
“But once Frank passed and my kids went off to start their own careers and start their own families, the music went out of the house for me,” she explained.
She fondly remembered hosting friends including Dolly Parton, Neil Sedaka, Kenny Loggins, Larry Gatlin and Kevin Costner, with music often filling the home. Over time, though, she said, “It became very silent. My world went silent.”
Now living primarily in Nashville, Gifford said she’s choosing to focus on gratitude instead of looking too far ahead.
“I need to find joy in the moment I’m in right now, because none of us know when is our last breath,” she said. “Instead of, ‘One day I’m going to take that vacation…,’ find joy right now.”
